


There's Humanity in Love

by AnnCherie



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, F/M, Multi, dark!Caroline, light!caroline, might turn poly who knows
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:54:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 26,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27269059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnCherie/pseuds/AnnCherie
Summary: Caroline Forbes turned vampire in 1920 at the hands of a charming British man she thought she knew. When she attends Whitmore College (all too close to her once hometown of Mystic Falls) she ends up changing the life of one tortured English Major Stefan Salvatore.
Relationships: Caroline Forbes/Klaus Mikaelson, Caroline Forbes/Stefan Salvatore, Damon Salvatore/Lorenzo "Enzo" St. John, Elena Gilbert/Damon Salvatore
Comments: 21
Kudos: 60





	1. Chapter 1

**_1920_ **

Caroline Anne Forbes was about to become one of _the_ most respected socialites of the Chicago nouveau riche, and it was all thanks to Klaus Mikaelson. Gone were the days of singing in all the local joints and trying to scrape a living together, gone were the days when all the women would sling insults behind her back because their men fancied her singing or more. Those ole hussies would have to hold their tongues now and it made Caroline giddy. Even his sister would have to quell her displeasure. She was no longer the Southern Jane that had left her family and their scandal in the state of Virginia behind; she was the professional musician about to be engaged to the most respected man in all of Illinois.

She had taken almost all day just getting ready for this outing and was currently all dolled up in a beautiful red lace dress. The hem fell right above her knees, such a modern look to be wearing around she thought proudly, and the waistline was low for dancing. Her natural blonde curls had taken forever to pin under just right, but the effect of her bobbed hair made her neck look wonderfully long and supple. She had one long string of pearls on that were nice enough, but it was the beautiful white satin gloves that she had pinched pennies to buy that she was carrying a torch for. If there was a gal anywhere in Chicago right now that looked more beautiful than her, Caroline would have loved to seen them. At least, that’s what she told herself. Surely she was the best if Klaus wanted to marry her and not the other thousand ladies falling to his feet. She got up from the vanity table in her room once she heard a knock on the apartment door and quickly ran over to answer it.

“Well, Miss Forbes, you definitely look keen tonight,” Klaus said after looking her over for a moment, standing in the doorway all dressed up. His foreign accent always made her shiver, sounding so elegant in contrast to her twang.

“Oh, these old glad rags?” she teased, unable to help but grin. 

He chuckled a little, grinning at her in return before walking over to her and properly putting his arm out. She wrapped hers around his and they left the boarding house without another thought. Walking down the stairs with him was such a wonderful experience, his warm arm around her making her think of what it would be like to show off everywhere she went. Maybe they’d even leave Illinois once they were married, see what New York was like.

They were driven to one of the more finer gin mills that Chicago had to offer. Klaus seemed to have a penchant for alcohol, not that Caroline blamed him any. Prohibition had made an alcoholic out of everyone. He signaled to the doorman once as they arrived and they were led into a wonderful joint that she had to admit she had not seen before. The whole place was donned in reds and beautiful cherry woods and Caroline’s first thoughts were to the black singer with her excellent voice. The woman saw her come in, but looked displeased instead of welcoming. Klaus led them to an exclusive booth before Caroline could ask him about it, her thoughts quickly fleeing as soon as they sat down.

Once she had surveyed the whole place and they had been brought their drinks, Klaus took her gloved hand from across the table, capturing her attention. He stared at her with those intense blue-green eyes that made her nerves fire up before asking, “You love me, don’t you?”

“Absolutely,” she answered in return, unable to play coy when he was looking at her like that.

“And you couldn’t picture a life without me?” he asked, sounding so sure. He knew what their connection meant for her, after all. It had been a rather short courting so far, both of them getting so caught up in each other that they knew it would hit a boiling point soon.

She smirked now, teasingly saying, “Of course not, Mr. Mikaelson.”

He smiled, squeezing her hand tightly. “We have such a wonderful future ahead of us, you and I. I can take you wherever you’d like to go. Paris, Rome, Beijing-- it’ll all be ours for the taking.” 

The idea left her breathless. Leavin’ the country? She had known that he was wealthy, of course, but the way he talked of money made him sound like some sort of royalty. She began to be impatient, wondering why he wasn’t pulling out a ring already, already having spent nights picturing what it would look like restlessly. Had he picked the right cut of diamond? Would he have gotten her something big and showy, or something elegant and mid-sized? 

Instead he moved closer to her until they were side by side, leaning into her so that his warm breath was on her neck and his face was hidden from her as he said, “Here’s to eternity, darling.”

And before she knew it, his hands reached to her neck and then everything was black.

The first thing she heard was the band still playing as she sat up, gasping for air that her lungs desperately needed. Her hands flew automatically to her neck as she stared at the club ceiling before searching to see that Klaus was still beside her in the booth looking completely unconcerned. If anything, he looked more happy than she had ever seen him.

“What-- what just happened?”

“Don’t make a fuss, love, the bad part is all over,” he said, looking so playful and calm that she would think herself to have fainted if it not for his words.

“Your hands-- you broke my neck,” she accused, flinging herself away from him as far as she could in the booth before he grabbed her wrist to stop her from running out into the club. 

He was frowning now, looking rather impatient as if she was a child and he wasn’t a monster. “Yes, yes, technicalities. You’re alive, aren’t you? We can be together now, Caroline. Just you and I for the rest of time.”

She gaped at him, wondering if she had gone looney. Odd things had happened ever since she had met Klaus and she certainly had a much worse memory, but this was all certainly a terrible nightmare. Maybe if she pinched herself she’d wake up, she thought, trying it to no avail. But how was this reality? He had broken her neck, she should be dead, not completely healthy. Yet here he was, acknowledging what he had done like he was Al Capone and unafraid to be caught. 

But then he turned as still as a wolf, turning his head just so, before there was an explosion of sound and bullets were raining down on them everywhere. Klaus grabbed her quickly, staring at her with wide eyes before saying, “I’m so sorry, Miss Forbes, but I have to go-- I will find you again. In the meantime, get out of here. Drink the blood of whoever you can, but _do not_ remember me until I say. It’s the only way you’ll be safe. _Run._ ”

And with that eighteen year old Caroline Forbes, Southern Jane, became a vampire.


	2. Chapter 2

Hours separated Whitmore College from Mystic Falls, Caroline justified, already well aware that she was playing a dangerous game returning to her origin so often. In the past ninety-one years of her life as a vampire she had to have come back at least twenty times, although she usually tried to make it as brief as possible. It really didn’t make sense anymore for her to return. No one significant enough was alive to remember her now anyway. The town, while one of the very few to hold onto their heritage and history so tightly, still looked nothing like the town she had left behind all those years ago. Buildings had been remodeled, countless others added around them, and of course the cars that littered the streets were now sleek and shiny. The world had changed the little corner of Virginia she’d once loved. 

Still, in the interim of waiting for the dormitories to open that morning, the Mystic Falls graveyard was a place that managed to feel like home. As morbid as that was... Just one of the countless details in the “How to be a Creature of the Night” pamphlet that she hadn’t been given. Kneeling in the grass as she stared at the headstone of her parents, even the rock seemed older and weathered, naturally aging in a way that Caroline could not. She reached out to touch it, thinking of her parents and the memories of them.

It hadn’t been long after she turned into vampire that she had returned home. Less than a year. Reaching out to tell why she had suddenly stopped sending letters had been a mistake. Horror-stricken and disgusted, but not confused, her father had tried to stake her. Apparently Mystic Falls and it’s secret defensive council weren’t new to vampires. Torn apart at her own parents trying to murder her, she had done the only thing she could think of and compelled away all the memories they had of a daughter.

It wasn’t until years later that she visited them again in the dark of night when no townsperson would see her. They had been kind to her as a lost stranger, giving her directions and inviting her in for dinner. That was before cell phones and instant maps, of course. When she had come back only a decade later, she had found them here in the cemetery instead, mortal dust and bone remnants buried beneath the earth. She had mourned them of course, but had also been so terribly angry. Not dying had become so terribly overrated.

The nineties had been hard for Caroline considering her birth in 1901 would have killed her by now. Life expectancies hadn’t been high with polio, the spanish flu-- She had considered taking death into her own hands at the expense of some wood or the sun. Something in her wouldn’t allow it. Made her watch as society grew and grew. She had seen the ugliest of humanity not long after she turned with internment camps and Pearl Harbor and worst of all the Holocaust. Each new decade brought its own brand of disease and war. But she had also had her mind enlightened by beautiful people like Martin Luther King and Harvey Milk. Had seen the courage of Ruby Bridges, the kindness of Fred Rogers, the intelligence of Stephen Hawking… Seen the dawning of technology and how it had shrunk the world in it’s connection. 

This eternal life of hers had been so tragically beautiful in some ways.

Having been turned when she was young made things easier. Eighteen and a few months was just old enough to pass for a young adult, but just young enough that she could play around. She had gone through night classes at high school and college level once or twice already, each time the amount of information doubling over the next. Caroline had to admit she was due for another course now that life was lived online. Not to mention the more recent comedies like  _ Mean Girls _ or  _ Easy A _ had made it look sort of... fun. So when Katherine asked her to do a favor near Mystic Falls, she decided to compel herself into a spot at Whitmore College and play nineteen.

Katherine Pierce had been the one to find the newly turned Caroline back in Chicago. If it hadn’t been for Caroline’s birthplace, she was sure that the vampire would have passed her over. Nothing else quite made sense and Katherine never helped someone unless she could get something in return. Yet even though the woman hadn’t ever been a loving or loyal friend, she had taught Caroline everything necessary about being a vampire. Flitted in and out of her life as she fancied, sure, but still a grudgingly stable figure to answer questions.

All Caroline had been told was that Katherine had tracked down one of her descendants and learned that the woman-- Isobel Flemming-- had given up her daughter at a young age. Katherine had spun her a story about having been forced to give up her own child when she was first turned, and even though Caroline wasn’t thoroughly convinced this was true due to Katherine’s penchant for lying, she gave in. Not, though, until she had finalized a bargain with a daylight ring forged by witches Caroline didn’t have connections to. Katherine monopolized those.

Which meant that whatever excuse given, this was dangerous. Something the self-preserving Pierce thought there was too much risk to do herself. A daylight ring outweighed any worry of being killed to Caroline. The first time she had greeted the sunrise in over eighty years had felt better than sex.

…Not too long passed this morning before she sensed someone else walking through the graveyard. She could hear their heartbeat first, that ever present rhythm that had such power over her. Standing, not realizing how starving she was, she felt herself begin to walk towards it with her eyes searching for the owner. While she knew that the wisest thing to do in a vampire hunting town would be to stick to hospital blood bags, surely a small snack wouldn’t hurt before she went into a school and was bombarded with temptation.

When she found the person she was alarmed to see it was a young guy about her body’s age and not some middle aged Southern man she’d feel less guilty for hurting. She willed the veins in her face to return to normal, holding desperately onto her willpower and hope that he hadn’t noticed anything. 

He simply looked a little surprised at their meeting, and his heart rate wasn’t too elevated as he replied, “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you. I was just visiting.” 

Her heart clenched a little at the thought of someone so young here for a purpose, and she asked, “Oh, you have grandparents here?”

“Uh, no, actually my mother and father,” the boy responded, and she cursed herself for not being more tactful or sympathetic. 

“I’m so sorry,” she replied, anxiously looking into his brown eyes and hoping that he didn’t think she was completely insensitive. “I was born with this defect where I don’t think before I speak, you know, so please forget I said anything. I’m sorry for your loss.”

“It’s okay,” he said with a shrug. “My mother’s been buried here almost all my life. It was just my dad that died recently.”

Caroline couldn’t help but notice how he tensed when he talked, his heart beating faster as if in an attempt to get the conversation over quicker. She almost wanted to hug him, to tell him everything was going to be okay, but she didn’t. There was something about the way he spoke that made her think there was something else he wasn’t saying, but she didn’t press it. He was rather hot, she noticed. Brown hair that was styled, eyes that now looked green since he had stepped into the rising sunlight-- maybe they were hazel? Nice skin, what appeared to be a muscular build underneath. 

He sort of smiled awkwardly and she realized she was probably staring, still hungry. His reply was friendly though, saying, “I haven’t seen you around town, are you new?”

“Yes,” she replied, already having pre planned a rather detailed back story that Katherine probably would have thought over the top. Whatever else Caroline might be though, she was a planner. “Just stopping through on the way to Whitmore. I’ve always been obsessed with history, you know, and my descendants died here.” She waved a brief hand at her parents’ gravestone. “That doesn’t sound completely freaky, right?”

“No,” he replied, and he did seem genuine even if there was a small smile threatening to form. “I’m a history freak too. Almost everyone in this town is, honestly.”

Was she being too weird? Was she supposed to have kept that in and waited to reveal her “backstory” all mysterious-like? It suddenly made sense why all the girls in those movies were insecure around the boys. Sure Caroline had advantages as well as years of experience telling her that most guys were one step away from being vampires already-- driven not by blood but sex-- but she also hadn’t been free to see one in the daylight before. Now Caroline could be more than a booty call, as Katherine had told her in her list of reasons why to do this whole thing.

“Well that’s good,” she replied with an awkward smile. “I better get on my way before I admit just how weird I am. I think they open the dorms soon and I need to get settled.”

“Maybe I’ll see you on campus. Whitmore Wolves.” he offered with a nod and a smile. Then he pauses and looks slightly sheepish. “I didn’t catch your name.”

“Caroline Forbes.”

“Caroline Forbes,” he reiterated, as if committing it to memory. It was rather endearing. “I’m Stefan Salvatore.”

“Well it was nice to meet you, Stefan Salvatore,” she said with a flirty smile, unable to help herself. It was totally like her to crush on the first hot guy she saw, she thought, a foreign feeling of embarrassment rising up. Giving a little wave, she left the cemetery in a much better mood than she had gone in it with. Being a college freshman might not be so horrible.

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


The dorm was now perfect. Caroline may or may not have compelled most of the staff to let her in earlier than necessary. May or may not have compelled movers to direct her wardrobe, furniture, and every piece of art she owned into the small room. That being said, the final product involved the dorm remodeled into a modernist interior that made her both proud and nostalgic. If her roommate didn’t appreciate it, she would break her rule of molding people’s opinions and make them just this once.

Whoever her roommate was, Katherine left nothing to chance, something they shared in common. What Caroline hadn’t been aware of, as she put her fashionably indulgent clothes away in the larger dresser, was that when her roommate walked into the room she’d see Katherine herself-- but it wasn’t, was it?

This Katherine didn’t have the scent of blood covered up by expensive sandalwood perfume. Her nails weren’t manicured, but instead plain and cut short. Her hair was wavy with choppy bangs that couldn’t have been approved by any stylist charging over a hundred dollars, and the way that no recognition lit the girl’s face at seeing Caroline couldn’t be fake, even for the perfect actress.

A doppelganger. Katherine had sent her to check on the doppelganger, the elusive prize that the vampire bogeymen Originals had reportedly been searching for years on end. No wonder this required a daylight ring. That  _ bitch-- _

“Hey!” the girl greeted, an awkward smile on her face in response to the silent staring. “I’m Elena.”

“Hi!” Caroline quickly recovered, “Sorry! Still out of it from the drive here. I’m Caroline. I picked out a bed already, if you don’t mind. And decorated. I got here early.”

“Oh, no problem,” Elena responded, looking around with her eyebrows raised at the paintings, pillows, and bedding. “It’s all beautiful. I can’t believe you got a dorm room to look like this. Are you going into design?”

“Thanks,” she replied, maybe a little too confident. “And no, not at all. Broadcast Journalism. Just getting my pre-reqs out of the way. You?”

Elena nodded. “I’m going into medicine. Trying to do the doctor route like my dad. Help people.”

Before they could continue, a decent looking man with black hair and blue eyes strolled in, eyes focused only on Elena. While he did glance at Caroline he went to continue and ignore her until Elena’s pointed look turned into a glare and he sighed. With a fake smile, he said, “Sorry. Damon Salvatore. You are?”

“Caroline,” she answered, then blurting out, “Any relation to Stefan?”

Finally it seems she’s caught the guy’s attention, because he turns around now to appraise her in full. “As in, am I the older hotter brother? Yes.” Caroline couldn’t find herself agreeing, especially when the chauvinistic attitude deepened. “You do seem like his type.”

“ _ Damon _ ,” Elena snapped, swatting his arm. 

“What?” he replied with an amused scoff. “You’re telling me Lexi wasn’t blonde barbie number one? Then that Sophie Fell chick, that--,”

Elena stomped on his foot, making him wince, and turned to Caroline herself. “I apologize for Damon, he has this condition of being an ass,” she gave a side glare to the man who only winked. “Stefan is a genuinely good guy.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Caroline said, turning back to the textbooks she was organizing. “I’m going to get to class, though.”

Without her vampire hearing she still would have heard the argument coming from outside their room as she left, the one where Damon was supposedly completely in the wrong and Elena was being too sympathetic. It was too bad, really, Caroline sighed. Stefan had definitely seemed nice, but while she neither believed Damon or Elena entirely, she had over ninety years of experience telling her not to touch anyone remotely connected to the doppelganger. Only death and grief could follow, and it wasn’t Caroline’s place to warn them.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so the first part of this chapter didn't get included for two months because i'm useless so please don't mind me as i repost...

  
  
  
  


_ 1 New Message:  _

_ Damon: So, Caroline Forbes? _

Stefan groaned at the way luck always eluded him, wondering how in the hell his brother had found out about the first gorgeous girl he’d bothered to talk to since high school graduation. 

_ What did you do? _

_ Damon: Nothing. She’s Elena’s new roommate. She asked about you, by the way. Salvatore name gets around. _

At least Elena probably tried to mitigate any damage, Stefan sighed, but he knew his brother far too well to know that “nothing” meant “absolutely something”. Ignoring the bait, he huffed and desperately decided to text Elena instead.

_ Damon just texted me. What did he tell her? _

_ Elena: Just his usual brother routine. I’ll talk to her later about it, if you want. Or give her your number? _

_ Why would you do that? _

_ Elena: Okay, do not tell Damon I said this, but you do kind of have a type. Blonde, cheerful, pretty, probably a little bossy… _

Stefan rolled his eyes.  _ Was she bossy to you? _

_ Elena: Not directly, no, but she was very clear about bed assignments and has already decorated our entire dorm without asking. She has good taste though, so that’s a plus. Everything seems super expensive. Maybe you’ve bagged yourself a secretly rich princess. _

_ I haven’t “bagged” anything. Stay out of it, okay? You *and* Damon. You’re going to ruin any chance I have. With anyone. _

_ Elena: Yes, keep your options open, Mr. Romantic; as if you already aren’t hung up on her. _

Stefan huffed and shoved his phone back into his pocket as he finished the walk to his English 101 class. He had hoped to test out of it, but wasn’t fortunate enough to attend a community college that would allow such things. Instead he was stuck filing into the lecture hall… where a now familiar bright face of Caroline Forbes could be spotted in the third row up. Desperately glancing away and taking a pivot into the second row seating so he wouldn’t seem obvious after whatever disaster his brother had caused, he sat and tried to ignore the heat of his neck burning. If Damon and Elena hadn’t intervened the feeling wouldn’t be as visceral, he told himself, blaming all embarrassment on them. He wasn’t some desperate romantic caught up in the novels he read all too often, and he wasn’t someone who’d fall infatuated with a girl he had only talked to once. He wasn’t. And yet as he tried to hold his eyes onto the lecture board, he could tell he was a goddamn liar. The only saving grace he was afforded was that Lexi wasn’t here to tease him.

God, did the class drag. All syllabus and expectations, no actual literature to distract him. When the clock miraculously struck the end of his torture he bagged his things, only to feel the inescapable urge to find her and apologize. She turned around right as he went to tap her shoulder in impeccable timing. Before she could say hello, he quickly says, “Look if I have my texts to go by I owe you a complete apology for this morning and anything my brother or Elena said.”

“No, not at all,” she said, shaking her head quickly. “I’m the one who brought you up, so it’s all on me. Sorry that I embarrassed you, I was only trying to make conversation with them.”

“Oh. Yeah, of course,” Stefan says, feeling even worse now that he’s dug himself deeper in a hole. “My brother throws around our last name a lot after being in Mystic Falls so--,”

“And I wanted to ask about you,” she interrupted in a rush, looking nervous for only a brief second. “I promise I didn’t ask for a list of your favorite things and zodiac sign. I just didn’t want you to think I was creepy.”

“You seem to feel that way a lot,” Stefan laughed.  _ She had asked about him _ . He wasn’t alone in the awkward embarrassment of crushing on a new person too soon. “I promise you haven’t given that vibe off so far. At least not unrequited.”

There was a flicker of a smile when he called her out that almost made her gaze seem dark, and he wondered what was beneath the veneer that he hadn’t found just yet.

“Well in my defense we only met once this morning,” Caroline said, a real smile returning as she began to tease instead. “In a graveyard where you were visiting your parents. Not exactly a place for romance.”

“Don’t tell Mary Shelley that,” he quipped, and she gave a free laugh in response. Hoping he didn’t sound pretentious, he asked, “You’re a Frankenstein fan?”

“No, but Gothic horror jokes about women who have sex on graves make the rounds in my friendship circle,” she replied instead, surprising him and not looking scared to do so this time. By now people were filing in for the next lecture, and he followed her lead as she nodded toward the door. They didn’t get much further out of it, lingering outside in the hallway and ignoring that it must be time for next class soon. “So then, let me guess. You’re an English major?”

“That obvious, huh?” He winced. “Yeah. I like to write.”

“Really?” She asked, looking interested, “Action? Drama? Mystery?”

She said each genre with a different tone in her voice, making him grin. “No, uh, more Gothic fiction. Think Shelley's Frankenstein as referenced or Polidori's Vampyre.”

He cringed a little as he said it, afraid she might misunderstand. 

She raised an eyebrow, looking either interested or impressed, he couldn't tell. “Vampires?”

“No, not vampires. At least not how they're portrayed modernly. I'm talking about monsters, freaks, outsiders. Giving human emotion to the obscene.” He said, his voice trailing off as he saw how she had tensed and looked uncomfortable. “Nod once if you think I'm a future serial killer.”

“No.” She suddenly flashed a smile and shook her head. “I just- I guess we all have a dark side, right?”

“Pain reveals a person's character.”

Her blue eyes narrowed slightly. “Your dad- how'd he die? I mean, if that's not too much-,”

“It was a heart attack.” Stefan replied, slightly surprising himself at how easily he gave the information up. Usually he deflected any serious conversation about it, partly for himself and partly for how no one wanted to hear about a boy losing his father. People didn’t want to face that life was mortal and soul crushing at times. “He was yelling at me about some stupid prank me and some of the guys had pulled that night.”

“I’m so sorry,” she said, her face falling. Maybe he was wrong, he thought, at the very least to bring down the mood, but she turned serious as she touched his arm with a gentle hand. “The guilt you carry, the kind that makes you turn to writing monsters-- you’ll find a way to turn it around eventually.”

_ I might end up falling in love with this girl _ , he thought, lapsing on the memory of what to say now that he hadn’t been given a standard platitude. “Thank you,” he all but whispered, fighting the urge to revel in the understanding he’d been starving for for over months now.

“Of course,” she softly replied, leaning back in a way that made him realize she had been leaning toward him in the first place. “Are you going to that campus welcome thing tonight?”

Coming to his senses, he still pauses. Damon, Elena, Matt-- even Tyler had all told him ahead of time that he should come to this party that he wasn’t interested in. He had told every single one of them no. It was too hard to think about partying and not spiral into flashbacks. But even though he will absolutely never live this down, he says, “Yeah. Will I see you?”

“I think so,” she replied coyly. “But from what your brother says you have a type, so if I find you talking to other blondes I might disappear.”

He was going to  _ kill _ Damon. Trying to deflect, he kept up the flirting with a grin. “Oh, if you’re going to promise to come then you have my full permission to hunt me down.”

For a millisecond, he thinks her eyes might have widened or her lips might have tightened, but it’s too fast for him to tell before she’s giggling. “Don’t you think I’m too pretty to be hunting any sort of guy down?”

“Definitely might have to happen in reverse,” he nodded. This time she shook her head with another small laugh, and finally decided to head toward her next class.

All Stefan could think as he walked the other direction was how dangerous her infectious smile seemed to be to him.

  
  


* * *

Growing up in a small Virginia town had taught Stefan one thing if nothing else, and that was that every good party was held in the woods. He wasn’t sure who had written that rule-- maybe one of the Founders-- but it seemed to have infected Whitmore college students as well.

He arrived at the scene not far from campus to the cheers of some Mystic Falls alumni still hung up on his high school quarterback career and confused Juniors and Seniors who gave him no more than a once over before turning to their drinks and dates. Some of the former classmates run up to him, though Damon and Elena weren’t to be found, and Tyler Lockwood was the first one he couldn’t shake with just a nod or fist bump.

“Stefan Salvatore, at a party? Are you lost?” There was a teasing glint to his eyes, the days when they had fought over football and being Matt Donovan’s best friend long gone. It still hurt, seeing him. A memory of the prank that Stefan’s father-- but that was in the past, at least for tonight.

“Ha ha.” he replied sarcastically. “Don’t tell anyone.”

“Only if you do a shot with me,” Tyler replied, dragging him by the arm to one of the tables set up with liquor. “Give you some liquid courage to bang whoever you actually came out here to see tonight.”

“You’re an ass,” Stefan deadpanned, only to have Tyler give the same shit-eating grin that Damon was fond of. Rolling his eyes didn’t stop the brunette from producing shot glasses and pouring bourbon to the brim. Downing a shot in compromise with a slight wince made things easier for both of them. Tyler slapped him on the back and let him leave, and Stefan searched through the crowd to spot her golden locks not too far off.

Once found, she raised her red cup to him and gave a megawatt smile. He walked over, desperately hoping he looked okay, and gave her a smile in return.

“You found me,” she said. “No hunting required, I hope.”

“None yet.” He smiled. “You look beautiful, by the way.”

She gave a small thank you as she watched him closely for a second, and he wondered what she could possibly be thinking before she asked, “Didn’t you ever want to go somewhere further? Get as far away from Mystic Falls as possible?”

The question’s timing surprises him more than the old and familiar question itself. Weren’t they supposed to be making small talk? Something they hadn’t managed to do in two meetings. Stefan wasn’t complaining. He hated it too. “Yeah, I did. But Damon always stayed close to Mystic Falls for Elena, and then once our Dad died he signed himself as guardian of me. After all of that I didn’t seem to be able to just up and leave him either. I’ll probably finish my pre-reqs here before I leave.”

All he got was a curious stare through it all and a distant nod at the end that made him hope he wasn’t coming up short to some expectation. Continuing, he added, “I mean it’s expected of me, right? What _isn’t_ expected is a gorgeous girl probably way too talented for some small time college going out of her way to come here.”

Laughing, she admitted, “Okay, fair. I don’t know. This college has some weird charm to it.”

“Nah, it’s just too close to the weirdness of Mystic Falls.” Stefan laughed, but he was only partly joking. His hometown was so obsessed with lineage and estates and history-- sure, part of it was just the South being the South-- but Stefan had seen odd conversations take place in hushed tones and quiet corners.

Caroline raised an eyebrow and pursed her lips. As he went to ask what she’s thinking, they’re interrupted by an all too annoying voice. They both turn to see a smirking Damon who asks, “Has he not kissed you yet? Please forgive him, my brother's quite the gentleman.”

Stefan briefly considered kicking him in the groin, but luckily Elena had caught sight of him and was walking over quickly. Stefan sighed, motioning towards him with a hand, “Caroline, you’ve met Damon. You have my pleading permission to completely ignore everything he says.”

Caroline nodded, eyebrows perked, with a coy smile on her face. “Duly noted.”

“Damon, I told you to leave them alone.” Elena groaned, finally reaching the three of them as she glared at her boyfriend. Damon grinned back at her, “It's important that I check in on my brother, you know. Weren’t you just over there scolding baby Gilbert for being at a college party with Vicki Donovan?”

“Not the point.” Elena scolded, taking Damon's hand into hers. “I thought you said you were bringing friends to the party?”

Damon shook his head. “Nah, Nick said something important came up. His sister Rebekah came though, last time I saw her she was talking to Lockwood.”

And then they heard a piercing scream through the woods, one screech following another and another. 

Perhaps the closest people to the sound, the four of them rushed ahead finding Vicki Donavan, sitting back as though she had fallen in terror. She was watching Tyler who was hunched over a body. He looked up as he heard them approach, white with panic. “Stefan! Get over here, he's not breathing.”

Stefan rushed over, finding Jeremy Gilbert lying on the ground covered in blood. He rapidly pulled at Jeremy's sleeve, trying to find a pulse through his wrist and turned to Damon who was holding Elena out of the line of sight. It was too late. “Damon-- get Elena out of here.”

“What-,” Elena started, her mouth agape as horror as she seemed to realize, “Jeremy?”

Damon took hold of her as she screamed, trying to pull her away. Tears and pain hit Stefan with such a force that he could barely breathe, Elena's guttural cries reverberating through the forest. She was hitting Damon so fiercely that Stefan could hear, wrestling against him as she tried to reach her brother. Tyler got up to help and Stefan stayed, unable to act. He felt someone kneel next to him and looked over to see Caroline out of the corner of his eye as she took hold of his hand. “I called the ambulance.”

He nodded mutely. Caroline brushed a hand over Jeremy's eyes, closing them and then shot up. Stefan heard her walk away, heard Damon trying to comfort Elena in broken murmurs, heard Tyler holding back the crowd that had started to form. He sat guarding Jeremy's broken body with blood on his hands, trying as hard as he could to not think. He couldn't look at Jeremy and think of the boy he had helped tutor or Elena's little brother that had followed them around. He couldn't think of Elena and her Aunt Jenna and all the loss they had already suffered. And most of all, he couldn't think of his own dead father.

It wasn't until the paramedics pushed him out of the way that he finally moved, standing on shaky legs. He thought of finding Damon or Elena, but reconsidered as he felt the sticky blood all over him. He was saved from the effort of trying to work through his shock as Matt Donovan came up to him in a panic. “Stefan- I just heard. Come on, let me take you to my house. Clean up.”

Stefan followed numbly. He could see that Matt was just as upset and concerned as everyone else, but it seemed inadequate to someone who had witnessed the body.

“Do you know what happened? Someone was saying it was an animal attack, but-,”

“I don't know.” Stefan interrupted, and Matt seemed to get the hint and remained silent for the rest of the night.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Caroline was frantically pacing her empty dorm room, still dressed from the party, digging her nails into her folded arms as she did so. Her heels clicked against the wooden floors in a rhythm as she debated back and forth about what to do. It shouldn't have surprised her as much as it did, finding that dead boy. Shouldn't have shaken her that much. She had only been here two days but a small part of her had already adapted this stupid college town into an extension of Mystic Falls, somewhere she could restart and find people for a time now that she wasn’t bound my moonlight. How naïve she was.

Elena Gilbert’s brother. A message, one that no one would understand but her or a handful of other vampires. Katherine among them, assuming that Katherine herself hadn’t been the one to kill the boy. That would be the most preferable option, as morbid as it was, because the other option meant that vampires much stronger than Caroline were in town and toying with their food. Something that chilled Caroline more than the look on Stefan's face earlier that evening. 

Caroline reached for her phone, calming herself down before dialing the number. There were only two rings before she heard an answer, “What did you find?”

“She's here,” Caroline confirmed. “A complete carbon copy of you.”

“Well, well,” Katherine replied, “I haven't heard of any horrible animal attacks and you sound fine. I might have to come drop your little college a visit.”

“It's been hellishly boring.” Caroline fabricated, trying to feel out if the other vampire was lying or not. “I don't think you'll be able to handle it.”

There was a short laugh, “I'll manage. Is the Salvatore family still alive and well?”

Her blood froze, but she managed to reply, “Who?”

“Oh, some Mystic Falls family,” Katherine sighed. More to herself, it seemed, she went on. Caroline didn’t know how she had called her bluff, but she was almost sure she was baiting her, dangling knowledge of Stefan over the phone. “I wonder if Guiseppi the third managed to break the tradition of naming their offspring after their predecessors- then again, playing with a second set of brothers could be just as fun, don't you think?” Katherine asked, “I'll be there shortly. Don't do anything fun without me.”

There was a click and the call ended. Caroline was surprised to realize that she felt even worse than she had before. 

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> did you all catch that name drop ;)


	4. Chapter 4

It was unsaid, but clear that Caroline was not allowed to leave this haunted college until Katherine arrived. While Caroline had many abilities as a vampire, the ability to evade Katherine Pierce’s revenge was not one of them. Antsy, she tried to attend her classes like normal just to pass the time. Did the homework that was simple but required effort to navigate new computer programs. Tried not to focus on how days had passed without her roommate Elena back at school, or Stefan in their shared English class.  _ Was she a terrible person for getting involved? _ While Elena would always be a target, she knew she could have pushed the tall handsome stranger away. Yet she hadn’t. Because she was desperate. ...At least it was easiest to blame desperation than to admit at over 90 years old she was infatuated with someone more than a third of her age.

Currently Caroline sat on a lonely campus park bench on her lunch period, not particularly talkative or hungry for human food, drinking some bourbon out of her metal water bottle. Monday's had never been fun for her, but doing them on animal blood to ward off any possible suspicion-- and guilt that came with seeing the kill of her species affect someone-- made it impossibly worse.

Footsteps could be heard behind her, and against her pride she recognized exactly who they belonged to before she heard his voice say, “Hey.”

Stefan held a coffee cup awkwardly, and she gestured for him to sit down immediately.

“Hello,” Caroline replied, trying not to sound too gooey and sympathetic or brisk and uncaring. Before he can try to come up with a response that she feels too guilty to make him give, she asks, “Can you keep a secret?” 

He watched her and slowly nodded, caught off guard. She handed him the water bottle. “Drink. You look like you need it more than me.”

Stefan barely considered before taking a swig, and she tried not to smile when he choked with surprise. He sort of half-laughed once he had swallowed, giving her a sly look as he took another swig. “Thanks.”

She nodded, smiling back then turning serious. “It's been rough for everyone lately.”

“I wanted to apologize,” he said, his brown eyes looking into hers. “I should have reached out to you sooner, I just-- it wasn’t personal.”

“Don't worry about it,” she replied, shaking her head. He was dressed haphazardly, but he still managed to perfect the classic English major look. Maybe because that look didn’t require much thought. “How's Elena holding up?”

Stefan's expression darkened considerably and he shook his head. “Not well right now. She's a strong girl, but... Damon's taking care of her anyway.”

_ Fuck. _ The amount of empathy radiating from his person as his hazel eyes turned troubled, the kind he quickly tried to hide away with a half smile and a shrug.  _ He’s just some boy, _ she told herself,  _ there’s billions in the world all at her fingertips now she had a daylight ring.  _ Billions that aren’t likely to get them both murdered… 

Breaking, she bit her lip and before Stefan could interrupt she blabbed. “This is really bad timing, but uh, is Elena adopted?”

Caroline won’t have to wait to be murdered by some “Original” now, she’s almost certain Katherine will do it herself. Consoling herself, she thought a 90 year run ending with helping others wouldn’t be the worst. It’s what her mother would have done.

“No, why?” Stefan asked.

“It's just- I have a friend from Chicago- and they look exactly the same. Like twins. I didn't want to say anything when I didn't know her that well and then after the party...” She mumbled hurriedly, and he frowned. 

“Do you have a picture?”

Pulling out her phone from her pocket, she flipped through her pictures until she managed to find one of her and Katherine posing outside of the Eiffel tower, unbeknownst to him half drunk on blood. His brow furrowed and he reached for the phone, taking it in his own hands. “Oh my God...Who is she?”

“Katherine Pierce. We've known each other for what seems like decades.” Caroline said wryly. Surely she deserved some ironic humor in this, right?

“They're exactly alike.” 

Caroline nodded. “I figured she should know, but it didn't feel right for some stranger to tell her. Especially after everything she's been through.”

“Can I send this to my phone?” He asked, and she nodded. He looked away in thought and she let the silence be, wishing that he would give her back her bourbon so she'd have something other than his quickened pulse to focus on. She needed to feed but she had to admit blood was so much tastier from an attractive member of the opposite sex than a small rabbit. “Are you okay? Your eyes...”

She jumped, quickly willing the blood-lust away as best as she could as she rubbed them. “Sorry, haven't had good sleep in awhile.”

He nodded in understanding. “Maybe-- after you get some good rest and everything, I was wondering if you wanted to do something together? I understand if it would be too weird after last time.”

“I'd love to.” Caroline interrupted without thought, genuinely surprised that he was reaching out to her. Shouldn’t he spot all the red flags waving around her? If he did, somewhere between his sadness and guilt they didn’t matter. Hating herself for it, because she had thought she had managed to be a good vampire and ignore compassion, she was being pulled toward him.

Only once before she’d felt it this strongly-- a decade after her turn. There had been two young orphans she’d saved from drowning in a capsized boat they had been using to escape abuse. Twins, though not identical. One blonde and one brunette. She had loved them so desperately, but that had been the 1930’s. The first, Josette had been killed with her wife Penelope in the middle of the 50’s, the South just as wild with homophobia as racism. Elizabeth had been lost not too many decades later to depression. Caroline hadn’t been able to protect them while they had been alive. Why try again?

But he smiled fully, for the first time in weeks, and Caroline's breathing stopped just realizing that her saying yes had caused it. “Great. Are you free Friday?”

“I can be,” she said, trying to play coy and as though she had some semblance of control.

“I have some things I have to do right after classes, but how does eight sound?” He asked, and she smiled as her alarm went off to alert her to class. “Perfect.”

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


Stefan's mind was so incredibly scattered by the end of the week that he was performing everything on auto-pilot. Eating, driving back and forth between the college and Mystic Falls, showering, school... Even now, while writing his outline for an English essay. Wishing he was back at his dorm so he couldn’t be interrupted didn’t help the fact that Damon was his brother, and Damon always brought distraction. Today was no different. By the time Damon had bounded down their child home hall and into his room Stefan had barely noticed, only pausing to look up from his laptop when Damon persisted. “ _ Stefan _ . Hello?”

“I’m trying to get some homework done before tonight, Damon, I'm making dinner for Caroline.” he replied idly, hoping that his brother's appropriate but what felt like permanent serious mood lately would prevent teasing.

Damon rolled his eyes, waving off Stefan’s comment. “While I hate to interrupt your attempt at freshman college romance, we have a situation.”

Stefan's stomach dropped a little and he turned around from his laptop. “What's wrong?”

“I kissed someone that wasn't Elena-,” Damon started, then quickly got angry at the disgust on Stefan's face, “-someone that looked exactly like her, you idiot- and when I say exactly like, I mean could pretty much be the most identical twin to ever exist.”

The younger brother frowned, putting down his pen on his desk and getting out his phone. “Oh.”

“Oh? That's what you have to say?” Damon asked, his hands flailing as though the Italian blood in their veins was a much higher percentage than it was. “ _ Really _ ?”

Handing over his phone lit up with the picture of Katherine that Caroline had sent him, he nodded. Damon’s eyebrows raised, his blue eyes widening as he lamely repeated, “Oh.”

“Her name is Katherine. Caroline didn't say that she lived close, but she said they were good friends. I've been meaning to tell you, but you've been a tad preoccupied.”

Preoccupied was a light term. Damon was handling Elena’s grief by preoccupying himself with catching whatever had killed Jeremy, meeting with police and councilmen. All this on top of trying to be there for Elena at every turn, who had all but moved into the boarding house as well now that her childhood home only held grief and her Aunt Jenna was looking to move away from Mystic Falls once again.

“Well next time you find out that my girlfriend has a doppelganger running around,” Damon began, his lips pursed as he swatted the back of Stefan's head, “Tell me anyway.”

Stefan rubbed the spot that Damon had hit ruefully, nodding in compliance. “Have you told her yet?”

Damon glared in response. “What the hell do you think? Her brother was just murdered only two weeks ago and I'm supposed to say 'Hey, your dead parents didn't tell you that you have a sister running around, oh by the way she's a good kisser'?”

“You couldn't tell-?” Stefan started, but Damon petulantly interrupted. “I kissed her by greeting and Katherine or whatever her name is wasn't opposed to kissing a complete stranger. I noticed before she got her tongue in my mouth if that's any consolation. I don't suppose I blame her, I am-,”

“Look, you have to be the one to tell her, Damon.” Stefan interrupted and sighed, looking at the time and starting to grab nicer clothes so he could take a shower and change, “I'm not listening to the 'but you're her best friend and you talk about everything' argument for this one.”

“Then how about the 'but your future wife is best friends with her long lost sister' argument, because that one is much more convincing anyway.”

“No.” Stefan called back, going out the door.

He couldn't see Damon or the irritated expression he was sure that his brother had, but he heard the response called back to him. “How about a double date? I'll start cooking!”

Stefan shot back words similair to “fuck off”, and headed to the shower. By the time he was ready and heading downstairs he was misfortunate enough to find that his brother had been predictably stubborn about enforcing the impromptu double date. Elena was here, talking with Damon in the kitchen as his brother finished up tomato sauce like promised.

Swearing under his breath, he went back up the stairs into his room and reluctantly took out his phone to call Caroline.

She picked up on the first ring, and Stefan would have given anything for her not to ask, “Hey! Are you cancelling?”

Sidestepping the question, he sighed. “Hey. Uh, Damon ran into Katherine in Mystic Falls, and he could tell I already knew about her, so he’s freaking out and trying to hijack the date by having him and Elena join.” God, this was agonizing. “We can do this another night if you want, I would totally understand.”

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” Caroline said immediately, and he wasn’t sure if he heard right, but there was something off in her tone. “If I knew she was already in town I would have warned you, I swear.”

“It’s not your fault. Damon’s more upset that he accidentally kissed her and I told him I won’t be the one to tell Elena.”

Caroline gives an exasperated groan. Stefan’s familiar with the feeling. “Of course she let him. Ugh, I’m sorry.” With a pause that lent itself to seriousness, she adds, “Drama aside, I think it might be good if I was there to help explain after the news breaks.”

“Only if you want, you’re in no obligation--”

“No, it's the right thing to do.” She affirms, then giving, “You’ll just have to owe me a private date.”

“Without question,” he agreed. Caroline says goodbye and Stefan hangs up the phone to go back down the stairs. It feels like a funeral march.

While he gave a sympathetic hello to Elena when he reached the kitchen, he still angrily shoved Damon away from the stove. “You add way too much garlic.” Stefan huffed. Now he’d have to spend extra time toning the flavor down with onion and a higher temperature. 

“‘ _ Too much’ _ is the perfect amount,” Damon snapped back. 

Elena sighed at the argument and simply directed her boyfriend out by the arm with a gentle smile to Stefan as she said, “Don’t worry. She’ll love it.”

He gave her a smile that he hoped didn’t show guilt. Elena paused instead of following Damon out of the room-- and his brother seemed to enjoy the chance to let Stefan be confronted as he continued on into the living room without his girlfriend.

“Are you okay?” Elena asks slowly. When Damon is clearly out of earshot, she adds. “Damon said you wanted us to join you and Caroline because you were too nervous?”

Stefan was going to kill his brother. “No, that’s not--,”

“I didn’t think so.” Elena interrupted. Her brown eyes had an almost permanent dark circle around them from the lack of sleep and amount of crying. “He’s been acting so weird all day, even for him. What’s going on?”

Gesturing at the pasta that was boiling, the sauce that needed mixing, and the still bare asparagus, Stefan shrugged. Taking the hint, Elena nodded, wished him good luck, and left. He tried to ignore the guilt pummeling his stomach and took over the meal.

  
  


When the doorbell rings and Stefan bolts to answer it before Damon can possibly attempt, Elena chuckles from the living room couch. He thinks to himself that it might have been the first he’s heard in a month, which makes things all the more devastating.

Opening the door, he’s greeted to see her in a printed floral dress with a red sweater, hair down in what seemed to be her signature curls, carrying a square white box and what appeared to be a wine bag. “Hey! I brought dessert!” 

“Hey,” he greeted, smiling back at her. He reiterated his apology to her with a look, but dryly added. “I call dibs on the wine.”

Her lips curled and he moved to let her through the door, noticing her hesitation. He wouldn’t want to jump into this sort of trap either. With a hopeful touch to her arm he tried his best to be encouraging. “Please come in. I promise the food is edible.”

Caroline gave a small smile and moved in the foyer but they both startled when Damon turned the corner on them and glared at Stefan. “How many times do I have to tell you not to use that phrase?”

Maybe it was just the sudden coldness of Damon’s tone, but Stefan could feel Caroline stiffen for a millisecond. His brother must have too, because he gave her a once over before taking the desert box and leaving for the kitchen. Stefan let his hand waver as he gestured her into the dining room and prayed to his family’s inherited catholic God that things wouldn’t go too far into hell.

As they entered they found a fully served table that Elena had put together, and Stefan gave her a thankful smile as Caroline sat next to him, across from her.

“Hey, it’s nice to see you,” Elena said, and Caroline gave a sincere but condolent smile as she nodded back. “Yeah, you too. If you decide to come back to school the room is stocked with chocolate in every form.”

Elena looked grateful at the toned down sympathy and nodded. “Thank you. I’m thinking about it.”

Once Damon joined them from the kitchen, sitting next to Elena and across from Stefan, they settled in and he tried to avoid the temptation to chug the entire bottle of wine they popped open. Instead he began serving the homemade spaghetti and garlic bread, feeling some small victory when Caroline murmured appreciatively.

The peaceful moment is all but immediately lost.

“So Caroline, Stefan tells me your friend Katherine is in town.” Damon said nicely enough, loaded meaning dripping from every word. “I had the chance of meeting her, nice gal.”

“She’s obsessed with surprises,” is the response Caroline gives, edge underneath her fake smile.

“Really? What’s the occasion?” Damon asked, holding his fork out as he spoke. Elena had been caught off guard at first, but now the curious confusion turns dead into suspicion at such a sudden interest in a stranger.

Caroline barely held onto her smile as she shrugged. “You’d know better than me.”

“Damon, what's going on?” Elena snapped, turning sideways to face him with a frustrated look on her face. 

His brother was in turn looking directly at Stefan as he smiled thinly, “Yes, brother, please tell.”

“This isn’t Stefan’s problem.” Caroline huffed. “And this  _ definitely _ isn’t how you bring a conversation like this up.” 

“Of course it isn’t,” he added angrily. “He's terrified that he's going to say the wrong thing with Elena like he always did with our father.”

“ _ Stefan _ .” Elena admonished.

With a quick shake of her head and an unwavering tone that begged attention, Caroline snapped. “Elena, listen please. You have a-- twin.” Lamely breaking off, she waited for the girl to follow with questions. “Her name is Katherine.”

“How would I have a twin I don’t know about.” Scoffed Elena. “There’s no way my parents would have given a child up--,”

“About that,” the blonde grimaced. “Katherine has proof you’re adopted.”

“You’re insane.”

“Show her the picture, Damon.” Stefan said. With a tightened jaw, his brother actually complied, and after a short stare Elena stood up abruptly. 

“I’m sorry, I have to-- I have to go. I have to go home.”

“I’ll come with you,” Damon offered, but Elena quickly shot him down. “No, Damon, you’ve done enough. Jenna can fill me in on the rest.”

And with a flurry of anger, sadness, and confusion, Elena left with Damon still following.

Stefan turned around to Caroline with a desperate apology. “I am  _ so _ sorry--,”

“No, it’s not your fault.” she said, shaking her head and touching her hand to his arm. The contact jarred him from his anger and put him back into the moment where they were sitting at a table of wasted dinner. “I should have said something sooner.”

With a sigh he stood and motioned for Caroline to follow him, but not before he snagged the wine bottle. They left the house for the backyard, wooded area ever so slightly cleared for moments like this-- standing together under a beautiful moon in the middle of a cool autumn air. Passing the bottle back and forth for a few minutes before letting it rest on the ground, they relax.

“You know something crazy?” she asked, breaking the silence. “I almost feel jealous of all of this. Siblings, family-- I’ve never been close like that. Well, not in a very long time.”

Feeling reminded how little they knew each other, he says, “I can’t believe you’ve had to meet my family and I haven’t even asked about yours yet.”

“You and I tend to find inopportune moments is all,” Caroline replies, shaking her head. He thought she might smile, and maybe there was a ghost of one on her lips, but she stays serious as she continues. “Either way, there’s nothing to say. Just graveyards to visit.”

Cutting herself off with a depreciative laugh and what Stefan suspected might be tears, he pulled her forward into a hug on impulse, trying to fill her emptiness with some comfort.

“God, I’m a mess!” she sniffled. “You don’t have to console me, I swear. I’m not usually this emotional.”

“Hey, come on,” Stefan said. “It’s the least I could do given Damon’s behavior tonight and the constant drama you hear about from me.”

“I don’t think grief or loss qualifies as ‘drama’,” Caroline told him with a look.

Stefan rebutted. “Well apply that to yourself then.”

Her pale complexion shone in the moonlight, curls falling down on her face that was smudged with mascara. The corners of her lips quirked. “Well played.”

Smiling, he takes the small win and gives into one of the all encompassing thoughts he has every time he sees her and leans in. Their lips meet comfortably in a way that makes his stomach drop and temperature rise, sweet at first, but then he felt her pull him closer and he deepened the kiss without hesitation. Her lips moved against his hard and fast, and then in one sudden movement she had broken apart and turned around. He cursed himself, putting an arm on her shoulder, as he heard what sounded like her trying to slow her breathing. “I'm sorry, I didn't--,”

She shook her head, finally turning around with an apologetic look on her face and a nervous tone as she babbled, “Don’t say sorry, it was great, I just haven’t kissed someone like you in a long time--,”

“Someone like me?” He asked, an anxious tone in his voice.

She paused at that, her face turning serious as she nodded, ever so defensively, “Yeah. Someone I actually like.”

He grinned involuntarily and pulled her closer again. He didn't kiss her this time, although it was almost impossible not to, but turned her away from him and wrapped his arms around her. They stayed like that, watching the night sky for a bit, the back of her head leaned against his neck, and then after the comfortable silence he let her go. She frowned, opening her mouth to ask, “You didn't say anything, you know. I just told you that I liked you and-,”

“I like you, Caroline.” He interrupted, half laughing at her nervous reaction.

The blonde smiled originally, and then started to glare at his laugh. “Well how am I supposed to know you don't cook for women and kiss them all the time? I was told it's part of being a Salvatore.”

He laughed at that, shrugging in agreement, “Alright, alright. Let me explain fully. I, Stefan Salvatore, english major and brother of the world’s biggest asshole, like you, Caroline Forbes.”

She shoved his arm playfully, but he caught how brighter her eyes got and how her smile deepened. He pulled her extended arm, drawing her to his chest in one fluid movement, and kissed her again.

  
  


* * *

  
  


There’s a light on in her dorm window before she reaches it that evening, and Caroline is already prepared for the vampire vixen when she reaches her room and opens the door. A heavy sigh released from her before she can stop it, and she tries to correct the mood, but she can’t. Reality slamming into her via a centuries old vampire is exhausting. Couldn’t she simply have one night that made her feel human again? As drama filled as it had started?

“Hello Katherine.”

“Caroline,” is the response, with wicked searching eyes coming from the brunette who was lounging lazily on Elena’s bed with red wine and chocolate like she owned the place she hadn’t been to until now. “You don’t look happy to see me. I’m hurt.”

With an angry huff, she threw up her arms. “ _ Maybe _ because you set me up for a selfish suicide mission after ninety years of pretending we’re friends when it’s convenient for you.”

“You got a daylight ring out of it, stop whining,” Katherine groaned, rolling her eyes. Petulant, she adds, “And I’ve helped you before. Remember how I bleached your hair back to blonde when you tried that horrific 80’s black grunge look?”

“You could have given the ring to me any time, you just didn’t want me to settle down!”

Katherine makes a face. “What, like with that human Eugene? Horrible name even for the forties. Or do you mean with that werewolf?”

“Scott,” Caroline angrily growls.

The haughty delicate face turns from snobby to disgusted. “He was a  _ werewolf _ .”

“And you were bored.” Caroline scoffed. It was stupid to argue about this, it was. Nothing would ever change when it came to Katherine Pierce, not if they hadn’t in over ninety years, but maybe after watching Stefan and his brother this evening she had become momentarily semantic. “Can we do this tomorrow? I’m tired.”

“From what?” Katherine asked, one eyebrow perched.

“Classes,” Caroline shrugs, but it’s not convincing in the moment and she feels her breath stop as Katherine sped forward within inches of her. With a perfectly manicured nail the woman dragged her finger across the bottom of Caroline’s lip.

“Or tired from whomever smudged your lipstick,” Katherine said. The haughtiness returned. “Let me guess, you have a daylight ring now so you think you can find a human husband and play housewife like you’ve wanted since the 20’s?”

“Misogyny much?” Caroline snapped.

All she gets is a pitiful smile. “Predictable much?”

“God, Katherine, so what if I actually missed these stupid Virginia woods? I can live however the hell I want.”

“Except you’re not alive to live, Caroline,” Katherine replies cruelly. It’s the meanness sometimes that almost makes her think she might care in some warped way. “You’re a  _ vampire _ . And if you stay here near Mystic Falls and Elena Gilbert you won’t even be that. But be my guest. Actively choose to ignore the advice of someone who’s survived a century or two. Just don’t ever tell me I’ve never tried to help.”

Caroline didn’t have an answer to that, so instead she turned off the light for the evening.

  
  
  
  


* * *


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (hey please go read beginning of chapter 3 that i didn't realize was missing...)

Gone in the morning, Katherine left no trace of having stayed in the dorm as anyone other than Elena. Caroline wished the disappearance was cause for celebration, but she knew that somehow and somewhere the woman was causing future needed damage control. Before jumping into a desperate search party she jumps into the shower, ignoring her phone and the fluttering feeling that she might have a text waiting from Stefan. Now was not the time.

The hot water feels like a blessing on her skin, but she hears someone enter the dorm and stiffens. The voice of Elena Gilbert isn’t lilted and calculated like Katherine’s, but it was still similar enough. She’s on the phone and talking to what sounds like a good friend, and Caroline’s vampire hearing afforded her the opportunity to hear the full conversation.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine, Bonnie. I’m just tired of Damon smothering me, and it’s not like I can just go home to Jenna,” Elena says, anger tied to the words. “I can’t believe she kept this lie from me. I don’t care if my mom-- sorry, _aunt_ \-- made her promise, it’s just insane!”

“Totally,” the second girl agreed. “But come on, Elena. Your mom is still your mom. Your dad is still your dad. Adoption or not, they’re the ones who raised you.”

Elena let out a bitter hum. “Uncle _John_ though? Come on, Bonnie, he’s a walking billboard sign for entitlement.”

“Definitely.” Bonnie agreed with a sigh, and then another pause. “So Caroline was friends with your twin and she didn't say anything? I mean that's kind of weird, right?”

Elena shrugged, opening a dresser drawer. “I guess I get it. I mean, if I just met someone I wouldn't want to completely uproot their life either. And it does explain why she stared at me for like two full minutes when we met.”

“It’s still pretty freaky,” Bonnie responded with judgement, and Caroline had to give her credit for her intuition. “Mystic Falls is weird but this is a next level cliché movie plot.”

Quickly Caroline finishes up, awkwardly re-entering the main space to say hello, wet hair and all. Catching sight of her, Elena gives a quick goodbye on the phone and shifts to give her a sheepish wave. “Hey. I’m sorry for the other night--,”

“No, it’s totally me--,” Caroline goes to argue, but then she hears the clacking of heels in a pattern so distinct that she froze. Search party over. Damage control due in 1..2..3--

Elena looks confused at her reaction until Katherine comes through the door and despite knowledge of the twin, the doppelganger's face still turns to shock. If Caroline’s nerves weren’t so strained, she might have given into the weirdness that was seeing two physical copies of each other in the same room. The brunette vampire waltzes in as if nothing is wrong, her confidence a weapon as she strolls up to Elena despite Caroline’s glare, and offers her hand. “Elena, right?”

“Y-yes,” the timid girl replied with a loose handshake. “Are you here for Caroline, or--?”

“Not quite.” Katherine smirked. “I figured I should meet you, since I’ve already met your boyfriend. Good kisser.”

“ _Katherine_.” Caroline warned, unnoticed by Elena.

“Sorry, nerves,” the brunette vampire brushed off unconvincingly. “So nice to meet you Ms. Mystic Falls. So ironic you came into a founding family. Wouldn’t you agree, Caroline? I mean you’re from there too.”

“Only born there.” Caroline replied with a fake smile. “Obviously didn’t stay long.”

“In the scheme of things,” Katherine replied, clearly loving toying with the room as always.

Elena raised her eyebrows. ”Did you know about me this whole time?”

“I did research.” Katherine steps back, turning on her innocent act quickly and smoothly. “Let’s do dinner later? I’d love to chat more. Bring friends.”

“I think Elena would rather have a smaller dinner to talk.” Caroline snapped before she could stop herself. “Something more controlled.”

Looking as though she wanted approval more than to weigh her options, Elena shook her head. “No, it’s okay. It will help the pressure.”

“My place then,” Caroline input immediately, refusing to let Katherine get any new invitations into the homes of unsuspecting victims. “I insist. It’s larger.”

Barely veiling a glare, Katherine retorted. “Have some good food waiting.” With a last glance at her who had narrowed her eyes at the _food_ part, Katherine waltzes out just as quickly as she came in.

Staring at the door, it took Elena a bit to come to and look toward Caroline. “Damon will be mad if I don’t include him, and I want my best friend Bonnie there to help control him too. I can also ask Stefan.”  
  


Surprisingly the girl had managed to give a smile at this, even if only mischievous, and Caroline laughed to hide her nerves once more. Those being split this time between Katherine being in the same room as him and then him coming for her in the first place. “Whoever will make you feel comfortable.”

“Thank you,” Elena nodded.  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  


Of all the things Stefan had expected on a Tuesday morning, it’s not an invitation to dinner with his childhood best friend’s long lost twin and his crush. Let alone his brother, who had proven to be the worst in the world around Caroline. He responded he’d come with a text back to Elena, and she forwarded him the location and time. Stefan felt weird having to admit he hadn’t even known Caroline had a home nearby. 

When the day and classes are done he gives in to saving gas and taking the ride with Damon, who was insufferable while complaining about how Elena had wanted to drive with Bonnie and not them. On top of her deciding to go back to the dorms instead of staying at the boarding house today, no less.

“She should have called me. I would have picked her up.” Damon pouted, and Stefan almost retorted with the best friend information he’d been given that Elena felt smothered, but decided against it. 

“Just give her space, Damon.” He huffed. “She needed the same time alone after her parent’s death.”

His brother rolled his eyes, but that did at least stop the complaining. Unfortunately it turned his attention to Stefan. “So how did the rest of the night go with Blondie?”

“I thought you were still mad at her.”

“Yeah, well, since she’s the first person you’ve thought about getting laid with since Lexi--,”

“I told you Lexi and I were only friends.”

“And  _ I _ told you men and women can’t be friends.” Damon argued in turn, bringing up their age old argument that had begun somewhere around the time Damon hit puberty before Stefan. 

Once upon a time it had started with his brother teasing him about being best friends with Elena, friends with Bonnie, and then best friends with Lexi. Stefan retorted. “And I told you that you’re a misogynist.”

“The _point--_ ,” Damon continued, ignoring him like usual. “Is that just because I don’t like Caroline doesn’t mean I don’t care that you do. So did you get laid or not?”

“First of all, none of your business.”

“So no.”

“Second, we seem to cause Elena’s bad luck every time we try.” Stefan added. “Kind of kills the mood.”

“Doesn’t have to.” Damon smirked, but acquiesced. “Fine, I’ll try to get Elena and this Katherine chick to the bar somewhere with Bonnie in tow and you’ll get your chance. How’s that?”

“Don’t rush Elena, Damon.” Stefan sighed. “Caroline and I will find time for a genuinely normal date that doesn’t include you trying to make us have sex another night if it’s supposed to work out.”

Thankfully before his brother could continue, they arrived at the modest one-story home in Grovehill with a beautiful porch and a for sale sign out front that doesn’t list Caroline’s name. Damon narrowed his eyes at the sign, and Stefan can’t help but shrug. “The home-owner is probably selling now that Caroline moved into the dorms. Why are you always so weird about houses?”

Damon pretends he hadn’t looked, but still responded. “They say a lot about a person, little brother.”

“Sure.”

Once they reached the door it was Stefan who knocked to Caroline’s quick answer. Giving a smile for Stefan that became forced as she turned to Damon, she let them in.

“You’re both here first,” she said, to Damon’s scowl. “There’s alcohol for now and food when everyone else arrives.”

“Don’t mind if I do.” His brother replied, making a beeline for the alcohol before Stefan can stop him and refuse to be the designated driver. 

To Caroline he still tried to give a gracious smile. “It all looks great. You were really nice to do this for Elena.”

And it did, a home decorated in dark colors that reminded Stefan of the boarding house growing up before Damon had decorated it, saying the blacks and red reminded him too much of gothic vampires and blood. Out of the foyer and into the off-shooting dining area to the right was a beautiful bar already set up and charcuterie boards waiting on the table.

“More like Katherine.” Damon argued from the background, not watching them but instead picking things off of plates now that he’d poured himself a glass of bourbon. 

Caroline is clearly very displeased at his behavior from the way she immediately pursed her lips, but with a slightly dramatic flair at ignoring Damon, she turned back to Stefan and pleasantly replied. “Thank you, Stefan.”

Before the situation could escalate, the doorbell rings and Caroline answers to find Elena on the other side. Except it isn’t Elena, he doesn’t realize between the moment Caroline says Katherine’s name. Further inspection was required with two so eerily similar, even as a best friend, and Stefan felt determined to find differences in the way they held themselves, did their makeup, or smiled. 

“Hello, Damon.” Katherine greeted silkily, with the kind of tone that Stefan thought he might not actually need to try hard for differences. His brother was glaring rather fiercely, still angry about the mix-up that had left him looking stupid, but then the woman turned to him instead. “This must be your brother. Stefan, I presume? Salvatore's, not so creative with their names.”

“How do you know our family?” Stefan asked, not at all moved by the way she quirked her head and batted her eyes. Disconcerted, maybe, but not affected in the way Caroline seems to think he might be by the way she’s glaring at Katherine.

The woman gave a simple shrug, asking Damon to fix her a drink since he was so close to the bar, after all, and the second given a drink spoke again. “Now, how is it that you-,” she pointed to Stefan, “ended up with someone like Caroline and you,” she said pointing to Damon, “ended up with a boring girl like Elena?”

Damon's eyes narrowed but the door opened once more and the real Elena came in with Bonnie in tow.

“I am  _ so _ sorry we’re late!” Bonnie exclaimed as she came through the door behind. “I swear I had no idea we’d get stuck in traffic on the way here because of a railroad.”

“Oh, no problem!” Caroline said, looking as though she was trying to be pleasant despite current strain. Not helped by the way Bonnie stopped conversation purely to gape at the sight of Katherine and Elena in the same room. Stefan has to admit, the full effect does feel bizarre.

With an awkward smile, Bonnie apologized. “Oh my god, sorry for staring. I’m Bonnie.”

She proffered her hand and the second their skin touched things changed.

Bonnie recoiled with a shudder so instinctive and visceral that the room felt like it had stilled. Caroline gasped at it, Damon put his glass down, and Katherine glared with the same dangerous look Bonnie suddenly is giving back.

“Let me guess.” Katherine assessed, privy to the information everyone in the room seemed to know beside him and Elena. “Bonnie  _ Bennett _ ?”

Looking just as strong and dangerous, even if Damon and Caroline looked as though they had severe concerns, Bonnie nods. “That’s right. Descendant of Salem witches.”

“What’s going on, Bonnie?” Elena asked, having just noticed Damon’s change in temperament. Stefan wanted the same answer but if Bonnie was going to answer she didn’t get the chance.

Damon announced, what seems to be wrong immediately afterward, “And let  _ me _ guess.  _ You _ were the “animal” attack.”

Katherine growled, spinning on Caroline in an instant. “You didn't tell me there was another one of us, Caroline.”

The blonde looked defensive while her posture increasingly became more aggressive. “Because I thought it was you. You're always ruining things.”

“What were you planning? Are you in with Elijah?” Katherine demanded. “Trying to get rid of me as leverage?”

“ _ What? _ ” Caroline asked, but then a multitude of things happened all at once.

Katherine’s full eyes turned black as the demons Stefan wrote about and the veins around them turned a visibly dark purple. Bonnie raised her hand to stop the monster but she shook whatever it was away in an instant to move with inhuman speed at Damon who had grabbed a nearby broom. Throwing it away, she grabbed him by the hair and extended his neck. Elena screamed and rushed forward but Bonnie threw out another hand and this time succeeded in her intention and kept Elena and Stefan back with an unseen force.

When he saw Caroline, his stomach plummets. Caroline, whose eyes have done the same impossible thing.

In an instant Caroline had thrown Katherine off and into the adjacent wall with a devastating crack. Elena rushed over to Damon while Bonnie started chanting, and Stefan turned to see Caroline fighting the brunette with speed and strength that terrified him until Katherine grabbed a poker stick and shoved it into the blonde's abdomen. 

Damon lunged at the monster but Katherine sped to throw Elena out of the way of danger counterintuitively. Then the vampire bit her own wrist, blood immediately flowing, and shoved it in Damon's mouth. Caroline growled as she pulled the stick out of her body, but she didn't arrive before Katherine snapped Damon's neck with a resounding crack.

  
  


\-------------------

  
  
  


Caroline heard Elena's scream, heard the breath get knocked out of Stefan, and saw the prompt darkening of Damon's eyes as he was killed and put into transition. All of this happened before she even had the strength or speed that Katherine’s age and experience afforded her and she remembered even more how right she was not to get on the wrong side of Katherine before.

“You’ll need decades more to fight someone centuries old, witch.” Katherine told Bonnie with a fake wince and a dangerous smirk. Then to Caroline, “He’s not just looking for the doppelganger, you know.  _ That’s _ why I let you live today. Do me a favor and tell him that when you decide to die here just like the rest of these humans.”

Then the brunette vampire is gone.

Paralyzed to the spot by the Bennett witch who was well enough within her power to stop a vampire only barely one century old, she tries to tell a sobbing Elena and Stefan that the body they’re crouching over isn’t going to decay like normal. “He'll wake up.”

“What?” Stefan asked, looking up at her as tears were also falling down his face. She felt her heart completely break. “What do you mean, he'll wake up? How is that even possible?”

“He- he's in transition. If he drinks blood when he wakes up, he'll stay mostly alive,” She said, embarrassing tears falling down her face as well. “If he doesn't, he'll die.”

Elena stared at her now, looking both panicked and relieved as well as heartbroken. “So he'll be fine. He'll drink the blood and then he'll be fine.”

Stefan looked at her, then Bonnie. “Will he?”

“He’ll be a vampire.” Bonnie replied. “That’s not the same.”

Stefan stood up then, seeming to come to terms that Damon was at least not permanently dead, and left Elena to watch over him. He walked over into the next room, keeping a wide distance between him and Caroline, but nodded at Bonnie to let the spell off so they could relocate.

“If he becomes a vampire, then what? He kills a ton of people and lives off blood and-,”

“You can learn to control it,” Caroline interrupted quickly, whether out of Damon's or her defense she didn't know anymore. “You can learn not to hurt anyone like I did, drink blood from hospital bags instead of humans- it doesn't have to be that horrible.”

She was trying to comfort him, trying to have hope when there was little to be found. It was something her father had always taught her. Positive thinking created a positive life, or something like that. Not that he extended that into showing her mercy.

Maybe Stefan was trying to believe her, but his shock and terror after what he had witnessed stopped him, and instead he kept Bonnie close at his side.

“I'm so sorry, Stefan. I tried to stop her-,”

“Why are you in Mystic Falls? Why did she follow you? Why the hell does Elena look like her, Caroline?” Stefan asked, each question getting more and more adamant. 

“Stefan, you don't understand- this is so much bigger than me or Katherine-,” Caroline went on, almost begging him not to ask the questions she knew she had to answer.

“Then explain it to me.” He snapped. “Now.”

  
  


* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and now... cue originals


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so i couldn't fit the og's in this ch without it being too long BUT i'm posting the next one with them immediately ;)

Caroline had only felt this horrible three times in her life of a hundred odd years watching Elena Gilbert, eyes so red rimmed from crying now that she looked almost nothing like Katherine, holding Damon’s still unconscious head in her lap as she stroked his hair. Stefan had previously helped move them to the rented house’s living room couch, and was now sitting down in an adjacent chair just as Bonnie was on the other side. All Caroline could manage to do was hover in the corner after having poured them all the strongest alcohol she had. (No one had even bothered to ask why on earth she had moonshine, but she had a penchant for it due to name and origin.)

Elena was hurt and bleeding just like Damon, something Caroline’s heightened senses were all too aware of, and she left the room to fish out a first aid kit from the bathroom. Once she was back, she awkwardly waved it and slowly stepped forward to put it on the coffee table as the whole party stiffened at her closer presence.

“I can take care of her,” Bonnie resoundingly snapped, before she could even fully open the case. 

“Of course,” Caroline replied softly.

Elena looked up between the two, bit her lip, and then shook her head. “I want to see if she can do it.”

Bonnie scoffed. “Are you _crazy--_ ,”

“I know, Bonnie,” Elena huffed. “But someone is going to have to help Damon when he wakes up and how much do you know about vampires compared to an actual one?”

“If your eyes darken for even a _second_ \--,” Bonnie threatened Caroline, “--I _will_ make you regret it.”

“Of course.” Caroline nodded.

She took out the peroxide and swabs, let the pungent smell fill her nose in a way to remind her what she needed to do. Back when she had Josette and Elizabeth she had trained herself over and over with the same ingredients to help fix their childhood scratches. She could do this. Silently asking reaffirmed consent, she sat down on the coffee table close to her and started gently wiping the blood that had only quite congealed on her forehead from Katherine’s first throw of her. Then to the other small cuts.

Eyes burned into her from both Stefan and Bonnie, and if she wasn’t mistaken the witch was also muttering a spell slowing Caroline’s movement, but it seemed the room eased by the time she was done and a bandaid was put in place.

Elena was the one who spoke first, looking almost relaxed. “Why did you try to save us? Why didn’t you just leave once you saw me and Katherine got here?”

“It's been a long time since I've been around humans. I forgot who I used to be. That I used to care.” Caroline replied. “No one but my--- well no normal person could stay in my life when I was stuck without an explanation on sunlight. Stefan helped remind me and then seeing his family in the two of you stopped me from being able to leave.”

“No one but who?” Bonnie asked. “Did your parents here know?”

Caroline gave a harsh laugh. “No, my Mystic Falls parents tried to kill me in 1921. I was talking about my daughters.”

Her hands felt like the safest place to look while she was stared at by everyone. Nothing could inspire her to steal a glance at Stefan, but she did see that Elena’s face had softened in front of her. “They aren’t alive anymore, are they?”

She shook her head. Elena paused but asked, “If you didn’t kill Jeremy and Katherine didn’t-- who did? Did you bring someone here?”

“Absolutely not, I promise,” Caroline replied, but all three noticed her initial frown. “But Katherine and I won’t be the last.”

“Why?” It’s Stefan that had asked, but Elena still affirms that she wants the same answer. 

“You're special, Elena. You're a doppelganger and that puts you and your family in danger. There are people- ancient vampires- that are looking for you, just like they did Katherine.” Caroline answered, putting a hand on Elena's knee. “I'm sorry.”

“But what does that mean? What do they want from me?” Elena asked, her bottom lip trembling. 

Caroline hesitated this time, not giving a quick answer. Stefan frowned, leaning forward in his chair. She hadn't told him or Bonnie why they wanted Elena either while they were so distraught over Damon

“Please.” Elena pleaded, putting a hand on top of Caroline's. “I need to know.”

Before anyone could respond, Damon sat up gasping for air. Elena went to embrace him, but before she could move he had jumped up and grabbed Caroline by the throat. Caroline didn't wince or move, but her eyes grew darker. Damon's face was filled with hatred. “Give me one good reason I shouldn't stake you right now, Barbie.”

“Because you need me if you're going to transition.” She snapped, easily prying his hands off her despite his strong grip. 

“You think I'm going to become a bloodsucker like you? I'm on the goddamn council, I have vervain growing in my basement. I would rather die-,” Damon growled, “than become a vampire.”

Caroline's eyes were back to normal but they still looked stony and resolute as she glanced at Elena who had tears in her eyes, and to Stefan who had walked over to her. “You might want to reconsider. For them, at least.”

Damon's eyes widened as he turned to see Elena's shattered face as she begged, “Please Damon. You can't die. You can't. I have almost no one I can’t lose you too, I just--”

“Elena- you don't understand-,”

“I understand that you'll be dead if you don't.” She said weakly, her voice breaking as she started crying. Damon moved forward and took her in his arms as she shook.

Damon looked up helplessly over Elena's shoulder to Stefan who was shaking his head also, biting his bottom lip. Caroline didn’t miss the torn expression Bonnie Bennett seemed to be hiding as she stared into the other room and away from them all.

Damon's jaw was set, and he seemed to be fighting off the emotion just as Stefan. All he asked was, “Brother?”

“I can't lose you.” Stefan said simply, clearly knowing it was a selfish act but Caroline couldn’t blame him any more than orphan Elena. “I need you too.”

“Wait.” Bonnie seems so calm but Caroline can feel how quickly the girl’s blood is rushing as she argues “Don’t. You don’t get it. He won’t be the same person. Maybe--,” she gestures at Caroline, “--can be calm around blood in a controlled setting but she’s not _human_. Damon won’t be human, he won’t be the same. It’s not natural, Elena, you have no idea the things Grams told me--,”

“Bonnie!” Elena exclaimed, stricken. “This is _Damon_. You want me to let him die?!”

“He’s already dead,” Bonnie answered, her lip jutting out, the strength dripping from her now that she had injured her friend.

“Look, Bonnie,” Stefan said as Damon faltered. “I think you should leave. Caroline can keep Damon from hurting anyone.” There’s no kindness in his voice for the first time she’s heard it. Allowance, sure, but no room for talk of his brother doing anything but the worse.

Caroline sends Bonnie a supportive look as the girl leaves, because God she can’t help but agree with the young witch.

  
  


\-----------------

  
  
  


Between the madness and the moonshine Stefan felt he could sleep for weeks at once.

Damon had a lot of family secrets to unpack for Stefan as the night encroached now into midnight morning. Apparently his brother might have been young for Mystic Falls’ hidden vampire council, but that was why he was so much more focused than the other members with jobs and kids. Not that he didn't have his own to watch over, he had joked. Mayor Lockwood had agreed to put vervain in the entire town's water supply. He had made sure that all the stored blood of hospitals was kept locked away, vervain laced in the lock. Cameras were everywhere for anyone that dared to walk in. Records were kept by patrolling policemen of which citizens were only out at night. Guisseppi may not have trusted him with much, but Damon and his father had an understanding when it came to protecting their own.

He and Caroline were currently arguing over his blood source now, Caroline having determined that Stefan was the best candidate. He continued, demanding to know, “Why can't Elena-,”

“Because blood-lust is dangerous enough when you don't want to bone the person. Sexual attraction and blood-lust blend together when you're young. You can't just-,”

“Well why not you then?” He snapped, earning a gross look from the blonde. 

“Because blood-sharing is also _personal_.” She replied, her cheeks turning just the slightest shade of pink. “And I really think you'll be the safest with Stefan. He's family. I'll be here if something goes wrong.”

Damon mumbled something along the lines of “incest” as he walked out of the room for the backyard, pointedly ignoring Elena and what had to be a terribly upset look. Stefan followed. 

It was dark now, the stars out and beautiful as ever. He wondered briefly if Damon would ever be able to see the sun again or if it would feel the same. Was Bonnie right? Were they all idiots who were condemning Damon to a horrible life all so they could hear his consciousness snarking them day to day? Sure, Elena had lost someone only weeks ago and Stefan now months but what could be said about being this selfish?

“I know I asked you to do this, but-,”

“Oh stop being so self-centered, Stefan.” Damon cut through, trying to ease his guilt, “There are vampires coming after my girlfriend. I'm not just going to die and leave you two behind.”

Stefan did sort of half smile at that but became quiet afterward, until his brother surprised him.

“If she wasn't in danger I'd still stay for you, you know.”

“Not Elena?”

“Not Elena.” Damon agreed, looking off into the surrounding woods. “She may not want me in twenty years when she's wrinkly and I'm... not. And even then she deserved better when I was human, let alone now.”

“You're too hard on yourself.” Stefan responded, shaking his head. His voice isn’t even like he wants it to be. Never having their mother had been his normal, and as absent as Guisseppe Salvatore had often been, the death had still rocked him. The one constant in his life of Damon leaving would be too much.

Damon shook his head, replying, “You're too much like Mom.”

He tensed after he said it, just like Stefan did also. They never talked about their mother, just as their father never had. Damon had been four when she died, just old enough to remember the things that Stefan couldn't. Stefan didn't know the countless arguments that Damon had with his father, begging for more details that a grieving Guisseppi had refused to give. It had put a wedge between them deeper than the disagreements about his future. When it seemed that Stefan was willing to let the comment go, Damon continued after eying the knife. “I'm going to train you and Elena. You need to know how to kill them, just in case. Father left weapons.”

“Seems a little naïve.” Stefan said, glancing up, “I mean you saw how fast they move, how-,”

“It's all in the preparation.” Damon reassured. “They're fast and strong, but they have weaknesses. Vervain, sunlight, stakes...”

Stefan looked down at his knees, frowning, then back up, “You're not talking about those other vampires, really. You're talking about Caroline. And you.”

Damon nodded shortly. “Even if I didn't hurt you I could get out of control. You need to be able to stop- it.”

“I don't know if I can, Damon.” Stefan argued. “You knew about vampires as a construct. Not as your brother or a girl you thought you could fall in love with.”

“You'll have to.” Damon snapped. “If I hurt you or Elena- take care of it, Stefan. Promise me.”

Stefan's jaw set and he looked away as he said, “Fine.” Then, slower and less secure: “How do I know everything wasn't just her compelling me, or whatever they do?”

Damon sighed reluctantly as though he could lie but knew better. “As long as you were wearing that watch Dad gave you last Christmas, it's real. Behind that face there's a pinch of vervain. Not that I condone any sort of vampire-human relationship. Frankly I'm still tempted to kill her while I have the chance.”

“Tell that to Elena,” Stefan responded smartly and Damon swatted the back of his head. Stefan sobered. “I don't know, Damon. She saved Elena from Katherine earlier and almost got killed saving the rest of us--,”

“Well she sucked at it cause news flash, I still died. And that poker stick is metal, it wouldn't have--,”

“I'm insane for trying to justify this, aren't I?” Stefan finally asked, looking up at the sky in a sort of resignation.

Damon replied firmly. “Batshit crazy. However you're my brother and despite all of that you will still probably ask her to college prom or something equally embarrassing. Let's get this over with so I am fully able to kick her ass before that happens.”

Stefan shook his head while smiling, pulling the boy scout pocket knife out that their father had always lectured them on having

“You washed your hands, right?” Damon asked dolefully as Stefan began to slice his palm with a stern and sober expression.

“Oh come on, Damon, it's not like you're going to get the flu.”

But before he could even respond Damon’s nostrils flared and while Stefan couldn’t smell the copper taste he could hear the muffled strangle of Damon’s mouth protruding painful fangs. Despite Stefan’s alarm he could still hear Caroline rush through the back door in a flash even though she waited behind as Damon sucked the blood from Stefan’s hand in the most peculiar sensation. Practically shoving Stefan altogether when moving his hand, Damon then moved with speed not shown before and back into the house.

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


It had been four days since Damon had “turned” and Stefan could tell he was going stir-crazy. For one, his older brother had systematically cleaned the entire three floors of the old boarding house in a cleaning-frenzy the first day. After that he had alphabetized every bookshelf in the house, which by Damon's count was thirty two. Stefan was starting to get tired of the “whooshing” noise of Damon flitting around anxiously and it seemed that Caroline was too, although she was too kind to say anything. This morning Damon and Elena were upstairs practicing being alone together, which from the look on Caroline's face didn't exactly involve talking.

They had been arguing the value of Damon staying without a daylight ring until he had more control, since all the closest to him knew his condition, but Caroline’s nose once more scrunched in disgust.

“I was always told if you make faces like that, they'll stay.” He hated that he was smiling at her.

“Yeah, I'm not big on the whole 'soon to be soft-core porn noises from people you know' thing.” She replied, slightly laughing. “I think he is safe with her, for the most part, but I just can't trust-,”

“I know.” Stefan nodded, “Thank you.” He looked up from his laptop after a moment after his deeper dive into vampire forums that were basically useless other than to give Caroline questions to giggle at.

“Did you ever hurt someone you loved? After you turned?”

Caroline looked up, her expression turning guarded as she said, “Someone I loved? No. My parents were here in Mystic Falls and I was in Chicago when it happened. I didn't really have anyone close to me to hurt. That doesn't mean I wouldn't have though.”

“Have you ever killed someone?” He asked once more, and her expression fell at that. She looked vulnerable, disappointed, and broken as she answered, “Once.”

He was surprised by her blunt honesty, surprised at the answer. He knew what he had wanted her to say, that she would never and could never hurt someone like that. He knew that it was a stupid notion, that he should be grateful it was only once. A lot of emotions ran through him then- fear, disgust, worry for his brother, and sadness. Sadness that she had been turned into this out of nowhere just like Damon. 

He finally nodded silently, accepting the answer. She spoke again, “When you're a vampire, every part of your personality becomes obvious, especially when you've just turned. I used to be this little girl obsessed with being better than all the other women around me. I was shallow and vindictive and when one of the women in the city told me I was a slut because her husband wanted me, I snapped. I killed her, even though she was a wife to someone and a mother. And every day since that- ninety two years later- I have dealt with the guilt. It keeps me in line.”

Stefan couldn't help but think of Damon and his impulsive personality, but Caroline looked up and Stefan saw Damon coming downstairs looking pissed and Elena following behind, saying, “We'll get you a ring, Damon, it's not a big deal-,”

“It _is_ a big deal, actually.” He snapped back, finally reaching the bottom as he came into the parlor and went directly for the alcohol.

“It's just for the Miss Mystic Falls pageant, you hate that sort of thing anyway-,” Elena argued, looking at Stefan for support.

Damon wheeled around angrily, “Yeah, the pageant I took you to last year where I dressed up in some stupid tux and danced with you and we got together. It's where we started _dating_ , Elena, in case you forgot, and I don't want someone else taking you!”

Elena looked like she was both touched and about to burst into tears, but she was unable to respond as Damon's cellphone started ringing and he moodily answered it as if he was saying the conversation was over. “ _What_ Nick?”

Caroline looked up a little as Damon listened to the phone, saying, “I think you should go,” before Damon responded. Damon glanced over at her with a hint of surprise on his cross expression and he said in return, “Yeah, that's fine. What time?”

Both Stefan and Elena looked at Caroline curiously as Damon continued, “Is it okay if my brother comes? Yeah. Alright. See you then.”

“What was that about?” Stefan asked him before Elena could, and his brother smiled thinly. “Triple date sort of thing.”

“Are you sure...?” Elena started to ask Caroline, but she nodded in return. “Yeah. He needs to be around other people. Being locked up is just going to make everything worse.”

Damon gave Elena an irritable look before turning around and going back upstairs, bourbon in hand. Elena turned back to Caroline, her eyes closed and breathing steady as she demanded, “Is he going to be this frustrating _all_ the time?”

“ _I can hear you_.” Came a shout from upstairs, and Stefan felt slightly sympathetic. He knew how Damon could be when he got stressed. Elena simply rolled her eyes as she glanced up at the ceiling.

“No.” Caroline said gently, “He's just new. Every single emotion he has is on overdrive. Being a vampire does that. Give him a chance to cool off and get ready for tonight. They're meeting at the fair around seven.”

Elena nodded, smiling a little bit at Caroline as she said, “Thank you.”

Stefan watched Elena leave and then turned back to Caroline. She caught him watching her and tensed a little. She was so _human_ around him and Elena that it was easy to forget that only a few days ago he had watched her pull a poker stick out of her abdomen, that he had seen her unnatural fangs and been afraid of her. He thought of his brother and how giving him blood to drink had all but lost the taboo feeling around it. It was still weird and definitely gross but it wasn't as horrible as it had seemed at first. “You're coming right?”

“If you want me to.” She said shyly, her translucent blue eyes so hard to read.

“Well someone needs to watch Damon,” He said, before realizing how that sounded, and then amended, “And I'd like you to.”

She nodded carefully, not showing the excitement or happiness that she had only a few days ago. It was clear that she knew to respect the fact that things had changed between them, that he couldn't see her quite the same now that he knew she could rip his neck apart on a whim. And yet a part of him wished that they hadn't.


	7. Chapter 7

All Caroline’s mind could focus on the past four days was how in the hell she was going to protect two humans, a newbie vampire, and a witch from the Original vampires looking to kill them. An impossible task that was simply suicidal to try at, but here she was, a complete idiot and trying to do so.

Elena had surprised her by following along in the car, telling the boys that her good clothes were at the dorm-- a lie that Caroline helped by lending some hers to a smile from the brunette.

“Is he going to be okay? Am I a horrible person?”

“You’re a trusting person,” Caroline offered kindly. “And if anyone had a chance at being a vampire it’s someone who has two people so deeply attached to him that know his secret. They’ll be some growing pains though, of course.”

Elena nodded. “You really like Stefan, don’t you?”

“Stefan doesn’t like me.” 

Caroline pretended to mess with her perfume of lemon and bergamot to help her stress and potential meal. It went along with the simple blouse, maroon jacket, black jeans, and black boots sufficed for the-- date? babysitting gig? Not her usual look by any means but a good way to hide spilled blood.

“That’s not true,” the girl argued. “But could you-- I mean you could be with him, right? If he wanted?”

Caroline put down the bottle. “Are you talking about sex or a relationship?”

“Both.”

“Could is a tricky word.” Caroline sighed. “Maybe in a different lifetime. Not this one. Not now.”

Elena looked away. “Because of me.”

“Not because of you.” She replied, shaking her head. “Look, let’s just head over if you’re ready, okay?” 

The girl nodded and they found the boys waiting outside, standing outside the car to open each side door and let each girl in. Caroline wouldn’t have expected that Stefan would do the same for her as Damon would Elena, so she tried telling herself it was out of politeness alone.

As much as he was cautious and guarded, he still gave her a chance. She wondered how much of that had been Elena-influenced. The small brunette had started confiding in her more and more while Caroline stayed at the boarding house. They had become friends, maybe because Elena had no one else to go to, and Elena had quickly become Caroline's advocate in the arguments she and Damon had. Caroline could see the compassion that the girl had for everyone around her and she was glad that Damon had that in his life, considering he would need it.

“Hey.” She greeted softly when they both sat in the back uncomfortably, wishing things were like before so they could touch. He smiled in return. “Hey.”

They arrived at the fair with little to no arguments except when Damon turned on music that Stefan hated and Elena had promptly shut the radio off altogether. Caroline couldn't help but laugh when Damon had looked to Caroline for back up- “Tell him his music sucks.”

“You're asking me?” Caroline asked, laughing a little as they got out of the car, “Really?”

“Yes.” Damon said firmly, now looking as though he realized his mistake.

“I think all of your guys' music is fake and auto-tuned. You have no idea what real talent is.” Caroline replied as Elena laughed and Stefan smiled. She turned to Stefan and teasingly added, “And it keeps getting  _ worse _ , Mr. Kanye.”

“I like Hendrix too!” He defended jokingly.

“And that one Miley song,” Elena giggled, jumping in. 

"Remind me not to tell you anything," he said, shaking his head in embarrassment.

Both Elena and Caroline laughed, and when she looked up to see Damon he had a slight smile on his face but nothing more. She needed to get him distracted, she thought, and she quickly suggested they ride the Ferris-wheel before they caught up to the ticket line and what seemed to be Damon's friends.

For some reason, Damon’s smile vanished in a millisecond and he gave a stare at the taller blonde man before recovering and going to introduce the new group of three. “This is Rebekah and--,”

"Nick," the guy interrupted, directly looking at Caroline. He reached for her hand and kissed it, ignoring Stefan who had been in the way. Elena gave her a knowing "girl" look out of the corner of her eye as she sort of laughed. Caroline withdrew her hand immediately, not amused by the flattery of some frat kid that flirted in front of his date, even if he did have a nice accent. "Caroline. And this is Stefan, my-,"

But then she floundered, not wanting to implicate Stefan when their unofficial relationship was testy. He was watching Nick with a tense smile as he finished, "her date." The taller blonde girl pursed her lips and shared a glare with her brother that went unnoticed.

"Ah, yes, Damon's little brother." He said, a bright smile on his face despite the meaningful lingering on the word "little". "I've heard about you. Big quarterback at your high school, right? You must love the attention."

"Nick. Don't be an ass." Damon snapped at the 20something boy. Caroline reached for Stefan's hand and squeezed. He looked irritated at Nick's assault but didn't say anything further. For a teenage boy, Stefan certainly had patience.

"Just joking of course.” The blonde laughed a little, saying. “Now Damon, don’t be rude! You have one more to introduce!”

“This is Enzo,” Damon said thinly to the group and Caroline couldn’t help that despite the bravado both were dangerously intertwined in an unspoken battle of nonverbal angst.

Elena spoke up first, curious and kind as ever. “Enzo, nice to meet you. I don’t know if Damon’s ever--.”

Enzo was handsome, the same dark head of hair as Damon even if much deeper looks and for whatever reason he also had the same British accent that Nick did. Foreign exchange students in Virginia, Caroline doubted? But she was proven wrong about Enzo, at least, who nodded and gave a gracious introduction. “Yes, your lovely boyfriend’s roommate for three years now.”

“On and off,” Damon shot back, but Elena still looked shocked and hurt. “Three years? Why--,”

Somehow Nick smoothed things over while Caroline tuned out to focus on nothing other than planning the best way to stop Damon from murder in a town that drank vervain… Maybe she had been wrong about this. Luckily when Nick and Damon begin talking about all the college pranks they had pulled last year the brunette’s heart rate goes down and Enzo doesn’t offer any other inciting bombshells for the moment. 

"Who wants to try and beat me?" Nick asked, half boasting as he stepped up to the bottle toss. "Come on, Damon?"

Damon shook his head, busy telling Elena a story a few feet behind them, and Nick grinned at Stefan. "Quarterback?"

There was something in the way he said it, Caroline thought, that managed to make it an insult instead of an accomplishment. Stefan smiled thinly, stepping up. He went first after Nick motioned at the softball, hitting the top two rows off after his second try. Nick's grin turned into a smirk, and in all three turns he hit every bottle. Damon looked up at them as the gamekeeper handed Nick the extra large teddy bear, saying, "Sorry, brother, Nick here is the best pitcher on the college team."

Stefan laughed lightly, saying, "That would have been nice to know."

"Don't worry, Stefan, you can't win them all." Nick smiled and then handed the bear over to Caroline. "Here you go, darling."

Caroline glared at him, shoving the bear back into his arms. "Give it to your own date."

“Enzo isn’t my date, luv. He carries a torch for someone else.”

That wording about torches-- it’s  _ old _ \-- but well, he’s British, Caroline explained away. Rude in a boorish way they weren’t known for maybe, but who was to say that wasn’t Damon's influence.

"I'll take it," Elena said diplomatically, taking the teddy away from Nick and handing it to Damon who shrugged as he took the bear. “Hello, papa teddy.”

“Is anyone hungry?” Nick asked, and Caroline was both surprised and enthusiastic about Nick leaving her sight for a moment so she quickly responded yes, earning an amused look from both Elena and Stefan once more. Nick raised his eyebrows but nodded at Damon’s request for corndogs and popcorn.

Whatever joke about eating human food vs humans that her new friends so very clearly wanted to make was left alone.

They found a table among the booths and sat down. Enzo was sitting next to Damon who was next to Elena and pinned in the middle between him and the big stuffed bear. Stefan graciously brought it over to the side he and Caroline were sitting on.

Stefan and Elena were busy talking, unaware, but Caroline heard Damon's heartbeat quicken and she looked up to see him angrily looking at Enzo who it seemed had moved closer than necessary. Vampire emotions so heightened and brand new, she heard Damon's breathing get heavier and heavier as he became more annoyed. She went to open her mouth but instead Damon burst first.

“Why the fuck did you come, Enzo?”

“Am I not allowed to see an old friend?” The second brit asked, a smirk on his face that was clearly masking upset. “If I thought I would upset your girlfriend here I wouldn’t have, but I’m still obviously in the right you’re too much of a coward to tell her.”

“Trade Damon spots Stefan.” Caroline said quickly, as firm as possible. 

Damon paid no attention to them or even Elena who had looked uncomfortable at first, alarmed once she saw the look in Damon's eyes. She moved towards him, her hand reaching to touch his chest as she said, “Damon, just ignore him, it doesn't matter-,”

Turning to compel Enzo, she said. “Stop talking. Keep peace.”

“I can’t,” was the toneless reply, and that’s when she realized everything was so soon about to go to hell.

“Damon, he’s compelled.” Caroline exclaimed, too shocked at the thought that Katherine might not be gone and instead still toying with them. “It’s not his fault--,”

“Course it isn’t my fault dear, it’s the boy whose Southern upbringing told him he had to fall in love with the girl next door and break up with the first person who loved all the dark parts of him too.”

Elena whipped onto Damon through the fear. “What is he talking--,”

“We were lovers,” Enzo stated as though it was nothing and Caroline did the only thing she could do and crack Damon’s neck once more before an additional lash out.

Compelling Enzo to forget and leave, she could only give the quickest apology to Stefan and Elena she could only give the quickest apology. “I’m sorry, I am, he’s just-- he’ll be fine, take him home like he’s drunk. I need to deal with this. Please I know it’s hard, but trust me.”

Stefan nodded despite Elena’s gaping mouth, tears, and glare at Enzo's retreating back. Caroline helped Stefan lift his brother so he could carry most of the weight Elena couldn’t.

Only minutes after, Nick found her gripping Enzo’s arm like a handcuff, the cocky man carrying only two corndogs in hand. “Where did everyone go?”

“Damon left,” Caroline said mildly. “Apparently your college pranks extend to screwing each other over?”

Nick shrugged. “Enzo, why don’t you head home now?”

The ease with which he listened was incriminating.

Nick turned fully to Caroline once more now, and smoothly asked, “Did you need a ride then?” 

“No.” She said, fully intending on walking the four miles instead of getting in a car with him. He smiled at her, folding his arms after handing her one of the corndogs. She didn't even pretend politeness, simply tossing the gift directly into the trash.

He grinned. “You're lying. That's fine, I'll just follow you along in my car then.”

“I'm pretty sure that's stalking.” She snapped back, starting to walk away. He caught up to her easily, laughing. “Yes, well, where I come from we practice this thing called chivalry-,” 

“And where I come from, women have spent years trying to prove they don't need men to do things for them, so get over it.” Caroline responded, making him laugh once more. It drove her crazy that her irritation amused him, but she was able to keep her control. Although she had to admit, the idea of ripping his heart out was getting more and more appealing. 

“Oh, come on,” He said easily, “one ride, that's all. I promise I don't bite.”

She eyed him warily at the statement. If there was one thing Katherine and her had agreed on, it was that there was no such thing as coincidences.

He smiled more and more as she studied him before she finally agreed, “Fine.”

The car he drives is as flashy and expensive as she thought it would be, although there’s no vanity license she expects to go along with it. He opens the door for her, something she couldn’t really avoid without technically knowing which car in the lot was his until now, but she gets in against her own advice to see if she’s met the third vampire haunting Mystic Falls and Whitmore lately.

"So Caroline, when did you move to Mystic Falls?"

“I didn’t.” She says shortly

Caroline looked over from where she sat in the passenger seat and glared. "I agreed to let you drive me home, not to a conversation."

Nick raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips, seeming to understand that she was completely offended by his personality and that things wouldn't be easy with her anytime soon. "You know, most girls your age would love having a rich college boy paying them so much attention."

"Most girls my age are senile." She shot back truthfully, briefly remembering with distaste that she had acted just as he had described and somewhat worse when she had really been eighteen. "And stop acting like I owe you something because you looked my way."

He glanced at her, looking away from the road, his face so suddenly serious as he said, "You're different." 

There was an affectionate undertone that didn't get past her as he said it, something that made sure she knew that he liked it. Caroline felt herself becoming even more flustered. All she had to do was endure a few more minutes at least. She looked out the window, watching the moon as she wondered how Stefan and Elena were handling Damon. Everything had gone so horribly unexpected since she set foot in this town.

"You really should see how the moon is lighting up your face right now-,"

"And you should really know that I'm not seduced by flattery." She retorted easily, getting more and more annoyed at the constant harassment.

He smiled. "I apologize. My sister Rebekah constantly complains that I can get a bit obsessive. You should meet her properly sometime, she has the same sarcastic attitude towards me as you."

Caroline smiled in return, her lips pulled much tighter. "Well at least she has good taste."

It was then that they pulled up to the driveway of the Grovehill home she was so grateful to use. Sure, there was no owner to stop Nick from entering, but it also gave him no option to hurt humans inside. Before Caroline could bolt out of the car Nick locked it right as her hand flew to the handle. He grinned. "Let me walk you to the door?"

She was sorely tempted to just break the car door off herself and walk away but if she was wrong about her suspicions or a neighbor was nearby she would regret it. Instead she reminded herself that there were more important things than bashing this guy's head in, like finding out if he was a vampire or not. She blew out the frustrated breath she was holding and gestured her hand at the door. His mischievous smirk continued as he quickly got out of the vehicle and walked around to open her door, causing her to mutter "seriously?" under her breath. He offered his hand to help her out and she knowingly ignored it as she exited the expensive car. He walked beside her to the door, keeping up with her fast pace, and she moved to turn the doorknob just as he asked, "No goodnight kiss?”

She opened the door, stepping over the threshold and turning around with a big smile. "Why don't you come get it?"

The playfulness left his features and was replaced with a more darker sort of amusement. "I am impressed. You caught on much quicker than others have."

"You weren't exactly subtle." She chided with irritation. "What the hell were you doing with Damon?"

"Ah, well he likes to brag, that one. Showed me a picture of his girlfriend almost the first day I met him. Such a funny coincidence."

"You're looking for the doppelganger." Caroline said, her stomach plummeting as she stepped further back into the house for faux safety.

Nick's eyebrows raised a bit at her reaction, and she cursed herself for not playing more coy. "You know what she is? I assume that you've run across Katerina then..."

Caroline's chin raised as she pressed her lips together, showing her stubborn defiance. He smiled all the same, but it was nothing like the teasing earlier. This was dark and threatening, the kind of smile that let her know she wasn't the only person on the top of the food chain in Mystic Falls. "Fair enough, I have little use of her now. As to your question about Damon, he practically still had Stefan's blood on his lips, didn't he?"

"You're old then, aren't you? If you're looking for Katherine and the doppelganger." She asked, her voice not nearly as strong and confident as it had been all this evening. Caroline couldn't help but remember the rare glimpses she had seen of Katherine's vulnerability- all relating to fear of these vampires. And if Katherine was scared, then Caroline knew she was flirting with a more permanent death at this moment.

"Old sounds so trivial, love." He said, idly leaning against one of the porch posts. "I'm an Original."


	8. Chapter 8

A splitting headache almost felled her as memories flashed before Caroline.

  
  


_ “What a beautiful voice,” a blonde man told her, finding her after her singing gig at a speakeasy in Chicago and Caroline blushed. It was pretty, wasn’t it, that British turn of words?  _

_ She giggled at the compliment. “And what a handsome accent, Sir.” _

_ “Nick, actually.” he told her. “And thank you. I don’t suppose you’re from here?” _

_ “No.” She replied slyly. “But I’m not as easy of a lady for you to get my story from me without buying me a drink.” _

_ “Of course, luv.” He chuckled, raising a hand casually to a waiter. Served in minutes.  _

_ She studied him further as they sipped their cocktails on floor. Mid-height, rich looking suit, well barbered shave… he was someone to pay attention to, she realized. Again, she thought to herself about his beauty while he watched her in turn himself. _

_ “How did you get around to knowing Gloria?” he asked her. _

_ “Oh, that’s nothing,” Caroline shrugged, tossing a shoulder. “Ask me what I would rather do right now?” _

_ Nick perked an eyebrow. “I’d hardly assume.” _

_ She grinned in turn, taking his hand into hers and feeling the warm heat of him through her glove as she took him to a booth and showed him how very different she was from the naive, boring, and immature girls here in the bar. _

  
  


****

_ Their fumblings around in the public booths, the taxis, his luxurious penthouse-- they were all as chaste as possible at first. She told herself she was in control, she wasn’t in love with him, she wouldn’t be as stupid as her mother who had fallen for a man in love with another. Caroline was nothing if not smart. _

_ Smart, she thought, but not infallible. _

_ Within weeks they were infatuated with each other, the banter and laughter so contagious to each other's hearts. Sure, Caroline noticed something was different about him. He was so influential she wondered if he was mafia, but she dared not ask. That was his business, just like her past was hers. Better not to ask a man where his money flows from. _

_ But she can see him begin to drum his knuckles on the table, tell when he’s seeking out Rebekah in a crowd, when he says he’s too hungry to deal with Caroline as she comes up to him after a gig. _

_ So she does what any sane gold digger would do, she tells herself, and loses what she owed to marriage and gains him back. _

_ He's an expert, she’s teachable, and with very soon efforts she has him back around her finger. _

  
  


****

  
  


_ “Seriously?” Caroline exclaimed, her anger rising at a raven-haired girl with a husband who had leered at her the whole performance. Said woman seemed to think this was Caroline’s fault. _

_ “Of course,” the all too naive person said. “You’re a sinner. We all know it. Stop trying to tempt my husband.” _

_ “Your  _ husband’s _ perversions are his own.” Caroline spat back, but then Nick was descending on the scene and she turned to the man she was falling in love with to beg, “Get rid of her please; will you darling?” _

_ “My pleasure,” Nick agreed easily, seemingly in a good manner. The woman was dead and bloody within the next beat of Gloria’s song, and Caroline felt so very powerful to have the attention of an immortal being on her side. _

_ She didn’t stop to think that maybe the woman was right about the sins. _

_ Instead she huffed with relief at the deed done, and Nick turned back to her with a grin that made her kiss him all too kindly. He might have been the most deadly man in all of Chicago, but he was hers. Wasn’t he? She’d make sure... _

****

_ You're alive now, Caroline. We can be together, like you wanted. Just you and I and the rest of time.” _

_ She gaped at him, wondering if she had gone looney. Odd things had happened ever since she had met Nick, and she certainly had a much worse off memory, but this was all certainly a terrible nightmare. And then as Nick turned very still, there was suddenly an explosion of sound and there were bullets raining down on them everywhere. Nick grabbed her quickly, staring at her with wide eyes, before saying, “I'm so sorry- I will find you again. Get out of here. Drink the blood of whoever you can. But you cannot remember me until I say. It's the only way to be safe. Run.” _

****

The amount of times she had her memories erased any time she pushed her vindictive behavior too far, any time she had regrets that made her resent Nick, all of it came back to the conclusion that she had been far more evil than she had ever thought.

Caroline is almost felled by the memories, wanting to double over as everything flashed before her eyes. Meeting Nick in Chicago, falling for him, dating him, waiting for him to propose, and then the final memory she had- him snapping her neck. “It was you. You turned me.”

Her voice was quiet and broken as she said it, as if she didn't believe it despite everything. She had loved him, trusted him, and he had condemned her to a terrible life. 

“Of course I did, love. I fancied you and I will admit I was a tad bored,” Nick said with a smile, still within breath's reach, “you can't possibly blame me for wanting to spend forever with you.”

“You didn't care that much,” she spat.

Nick sighed. “No, perhaps not. But you were different then. Shallow, manipulative, insecure. You ought to thank me. Becoming a vampire has made you so much more brilliant.”

“Go to hell,” she snapped angrily, sneering at him as she said it. She pushed him away with all the strength she had, causing him to crash into the porch fence. All he did was laugh.

“That's alright, go ahead and hate me, Caroline. You won't be able to do it forever, ask my siblings.”

She glared at him, the knowledge that he could kill her so easily being the only thing holding her back. “Watch me.”

He merely smirked. “I plan to, luv. After all, you’ve aligned yourself with the doppelganger. It would be so easy to compel you to turn off your Freudian superego yet again.”

“You made me turn my humanity off as a human,” she realized, thinking now of memories of using him as a knife and tool to destroy anyone in the way of her perfection. 

“Oh, darling, wouldn’t it be easy to label it that?” Nick laughed. “Simply realize morals are relative and grey. The world will bend before you when you do.”

“I’m sure that’s how you live,” Caroline growled. “But it isn’t how I do anymore.”

“So I see,” he said. “I’ll be around. Good luck fighting me. I wouldn’t suggest it. Go find somewhere safe where I can reach you once my goal is accomplished.”

And then, in the middle of her internal meltdown over her past actions, he vanishes. She drops to her knees on the wooden porch finally, and allows herself one anxious, guilt-ridden cry.


	9. Chapter 9

Stefan hadn’t expected it to be a quiet morning and he was both right and wrong. Elena had stayed over, making breakfast in a way that signaled one thing. The bigger the breakfast, the bigger the fight she and Damon had the night before, Stefan had observed. (When Damon made breakfast, all it meant was that he had gotten laid.) By the time Damon had woken up and come downstairs everything was made and both Stefan and Elena were sitting down and sipping coffee. Damon strolled into the kitchen with only his boxers and ruffled hair and idly looked at the spread of pancakes, cereal, bacon, omelets, and hashbrowns with a sigh. “You've outdone yourself, Elena.”

“Caroline said eating regular food can help curb the cravings,” Elena responded a little defensively, looking as though she was still upset about whatever had gone on between them last night. “Come on, I even cooked the bacon with bourbon.”

Damon glanced over to Stefan who sportingly said, “She didn't even burn it.” 

He smiled insincerely and looked at the covered kitchen window, daylight trying it's best to come through the opaque curtains. Elena frowned as she watched him, looking upset that he didn't automatically join them like usual. “Damon, come on. Stefan and I are going back to classes today and it would really mean a lot to me if we just had one normal morning.”

Surprisingly enough, Damon agreed. He might not have if he knew Stefan and her were actually going to see Bonnie and not, in fact, attending classes that they were woefully behind on. Caroline’s mentions of how a daylight ring would help him stay normal was ringing desperately in Stefan’s ears. Just like Caroline’s cellphone, Stefan thought bitterly.  _ What was wrong? _

Hopefully he’d find her at campus either in class or her dorm, the only reason he agrees to go with Elena instead of running to Caroline’s house. Taking Stefan’s car, they left, both of them trying not to think about how Damon was unable to join them in the sunny ride.

“Did you know Damon wasn’t straight?” Elena asked half way through their car ride, interrupting his thoughts while biting her lip. Clearly she didn’t want to care, but he has known her far too long to know that she does care very much that she hadn’t spotted it herself. “It’s okay, I just--,”

“I didn’t,” he answered, and she shrank a little with relief at not being the only one. Not unkindly, Stefan added, “But I’m not surprised.”

“Oh,” she said, frowning. Looking over now that she feels less guilty, she asked him, “Alaric?”

Stefan smiled a bit at the immediate guess. “It always seemed borderline flirting, yeah.”

Elena giggled a bit at that. “I suppose you’re right.”

They find Bonnie first when Caroline isn’t in her dorm, something that spikes Stefan’s worry, but this is important. Bonnie says hello to him kindly enough, but she doesn’t spare him a glare after the way he spoke to her last time. He goes to apologize, but she shakes her head. 

“It’s fine, Stefan. I understand why you did it.” Looking to Elena as well, she pursed her lips. “Honestly I’ve been waiting for you to come ask.” “Come on.” She grabbed her bag and gestured them out of the room with her. “Let’s go see, Grams.”

Sheila Bennett was sitting inside her office on an armchair underneath the open window, her back facing him as she read an ancient looking book. “Come on in,” she told them, before either of the three had knocked.

She had always had that eery sixth sense about her, he thought. They awkwardly followed her advice and opened the door, stepping through. The old woman turned now and looked up at them with a small smile and he shrugged a little. "Stefan Salvatore too, huh? I’m surprised. Last time I saw you was in Mystic Falls when you and your brother were kids having broke my window. I don't think I ever seen you two so scared in your lives. As soon as Damon realized I wasn't going to turn you into frogs he told me every joke in the book about witches."

Stefan laughed, remembering, "Why did the witch give up fortune-telling?"

"There was no future in it." Sheila replied, shaking her head. "My, you two boys have grown. But enough of my nonsense, you tell me what has you so troubled. Come on, sit down."

Suddenly he found all the lightheartedness was gone from the moment as they slowly made their way to the chair across from her and she poured them a cup of ready made tea. Somehow, there were already the four cups needed waiting on the coffee table all along. Stefan wondered what exactly witches could do but more so what they  _ couldn’t _ do, if fortune telling was one of them.

“Grams, they want to make Damon a daylight ring.” Bonnie cut across. Elena looked at her best friend, clearly shocked at Bonnie having divulged all their secrets to her grandmother.

“He’s going crazy trying to get us to stake him,” Elena added desperately. “He wants us to start training how to kill vampires. We just-- well I want him to feel human for a moment.”

Sheila stayed quiet for a good minute, stirring her tea with her eyes closed and her lips pursed. Stefan sat awkwardly in the chair wondering what on earth she could possibly be doing but too polite and nervous to interrupt her. Finally she opened her eyes and paused only a few seconds before saying, “Your Damon has a good heart, but I'm not sure he can handle being a vampire.”

“He will. I'll make sure of it,” Stefan reassured her.

A wicked sort of chuckle escapes her as she said. “I don't think you understand, but alright. I'll help you. God knows we're going to need all the help we can get to keep everyone safe.”

“Thank you,” Elena rushed to offer, same time as Stefan, but much louder. Bonnie looked a little happier now that her Grandmother had been the one to agree, but he can tell she’s just as worried even still. What stories had she heard?

Stefan pulled one of the old family rings out from his pocket. It had meant to be donated to the Founder's council but Guisseppi had been too fond of passing them down to give the rings up for some dusty exhibit. Caroline had only briefly explained how she had gotten her ring and Stefan was fairly nervous as he handed the heirloom over to Sheila.

Sheila examined it for a moment before setting it down on the table in front of them. She closed her eyes as she held one of the old books in front of her, and after only a few seconds said, “It's done.”

Stefan can't help but feel dubious, and it seemed that Sheila caught on as she smiled and said. “Magic isn't always a big production, Mr. Salvatore. It will work, I promise. However if Damon becomes a problem— and I will be watching— be rest assured that I or Bonnie will take that spell off faster than those vampires can blink.”

He nodded only once, replying, “He won't.”

“Well with you and Elena around I imagine he has more chance than most,” she admitted, looking at a headstrong Elena now. “Heaven forbid anything happen to either of you.”

And with that, Stefan didn't have a response.

  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


By the time Stefan returned home to the boarding house that he felt too guilty leaving his brother at, Damon was awake and drinking the half bottle of bourbon left, lounging in the main room on the couch with quite the amount of apathy. Stefan grabbed a glass from the small bar, walked over to the neighboring armchair, and poured some left over bourbon for his own. Sure it was barely noon, but they had all the reasons in the world. They sat in a brooding quiet with the fire, not for the first time, until finally Stefan felt brave enough to test Damon’s mood.

“I thought you said I was the brooder of the family?”

Damon didn't even glance over to him as he replied. “I said you did enough brooding for the entire family and our ancestors. Not that you were the only one.”

“Must be inherited,” Stefan said lightly. He’s nervous before adding, “I never would have cared if you said you weren’t straight.”

His brother only rolled his eyes. “There were extenuating circumstances.”

“Being?”

“You’re a terrible liar and too close to the two people I didn’t want knowing.”

Stefan sighed. “Elena wouldn’t remotely care either. Won’t, even, when she’s done being mad at you for not mentioning a past relationship and roommate entirely.”

“Maybe.” Damon shrugged.

“Were you in love with him?” Stefan asked, even though it’s not what he’s asking. 

“Of course not.” Damon answered, even though it’s not what he’s meaning.

Letting it go, even if he does want to grill him further, Stefan moves on. “Well, you can brood less now. Elena and I managed to get you a daylight ring.”

He did look over at that, and Stefan pulled out the ring. Damon scoffed as he saw it, saying, “Really? The family crest?”

“I'm sorry, did you want a princess cut diamond?” Stefan replied and Damon rolled his eyes as he took the ring out of Stefan's hand. 

“So to whom do I owe this honor?” he asked, “assuming it actually works, of course.”

Stefan sighed with irritation as he answered, “Sheila Bennett, Bonnie's grandma. Elena and I figured she might be able to help, so I went over there and she did.”

Damon eyed him critically, saying, “Uh huh. Well I definitely appreciate the brotherly love, but I don't want it.”

“Seriously, Damon, it's just a crest. It's not like Dad's even here to talk about the Salvatore legacy and honor—,”

“I don't want it--,” he interrupted, “--because I could have killed Enzo. I don't understand how you and Elena are so easily glossing over that.”

“Oh, I don't know, maybe because you're the only family I haven't lost?” Stefan snapped back, “it wasn't like you sat up in your room premeditating the whole thing, Damon.”

Damon sighed, but didn't try to argue that. They sat for a while, the fire crackling being the only sound interrupting their silence. Stefan noticed that Damon's glass of bourbon was empty and thought about offering him another one. As he was about to, Damon interrupted him. “I can't protect her, Stefan. Not like this.”

“Super strength and speed sounds like a more fair advantage than being weak and human.”

He glared over at Stefan, growling out, “You don't get it. I hear her blood pumping through her veins, I hear her heartbeat, and it's like she's water and I'm completely dehydrated.”

Stefan frowned, replying, “You love each other. You can make it work.”

“How am I supposed to make it work when I'm not sure if I'll end up killing her?” Damon yelled, dropping his glass on the table with enough force that it shattered, immediately so angry that Stefan sat back in his chair. The ring fell to the floor and rolled over to the fireplace as he continued, “please, tell me.”

“Remember mom,” he replied softly, looking down at his hands, “I've seen pictures, they have the same smile. I think that was part of the reason I used to have a crush on her.”

Damon's face blanched at that, and Stefan knew it was the last thing he had expected to hear. It seemed to have the sort of absolute effect on him that had been wanted. He looked away, towards the dark windows that let little light in, and Stefan looked away out of respect also. There was a tense and nervous pause before Damon responded, “I think the worst thing about this- worse than the killing and the danger- the worst thing is that I could have been with her. I could have seen her again— assuming heaven or whatever exists.”

Stefan's throat constricted and he sort of nodded before quickly looking away. Guilt had been consistently churning in his stomach for the past four almost five days now. It had been completely aggravated by what had happened at the fair, and now as he heard his brother speak about their dead mother in such a revealing manner, he didn't think he could possibly take it. It may have been Damon's choice in the very end, but Stefan knew that he was just as much to blame. Damon had said it himself, said that he wouldn't have stayed for anyone else, and Stefan had condemned him to this— a tainted, miserable life only to end in a damned death.

He was about to encourage Damon further, try and echo some of what he had said last night before his phone rang. He glanced at the screen before picking up the call.

“Hello, is this Stefan Salvatore?”

He had answered the unknown number with dread, and now the formal and polite tone only made him confused. “Yes, who is this?”

“This is Meredith Fell, I'm a doctor here at Mystic Falls Hospital. I'm calling because you're listed as an emergency contact for Matt Donovan. He was involved in a horrible car accident this morning and I'm afraid he isn't doing so well. We tried to call his mother but we were unable to reach her—,”

“I'll be right there,” Stefan replied shortly, bolting up amidst the concerned look of Elena. It seemed Damon had heard what was said, he was standing also and grabbing his keys. As Stefan hung up, Damon quickly said, “Come on, I'll drive.”

“You can't go outside, the sun—,”

Damon sighed, grabbing the daylight ring from it’s fallen place on the rug and slipped it on. “Happy? Let's go. I don't want Mystic Falls best linebacker dying before we win state.”

  
  
  



	10. Chapter 10

Caroline thought that Nick had disappeared for good that evening, but she wasn’t so lucky. Around eleven, when she was in her pj’s and eating ice cream while watching Golden Girls to try and cope, he graced her doorstep again. Caroline had been smart enough not to go back to Whitmore, too cautious of what Nick might do around a school of humans, or worse-- Elena.

“Hello, love,” he said loudly, knowing that her vampire would pick up his voice from outside. “I wouldn’t bother you again so soon, but it turns out my dear sister is requesting your presence.”

That was enough to tempt Caroline to at least go and stand on the other side of the door where she could watch him angrily from the window.

“Your sister hated me,” Caroline snapped, “and ninety-two years couldn't change that.”

“Nonsense. Rebekah's more mature now,” Nick replied, waving his hand, “and I wasn't really asking. Come on, for old time's sake?”

Caroline looked up, seeing the same threatening glint in his eyes that she had refused to pay attention to back in the twenties, and felt her stomach plummet. She cursed her eighteen year old self for ever having fallen for such an utterly messed up man and sighed as she said, “Let me get my phone charger.”

  
  


It was morning when Caroline woke up in an extravagant bed that wasn't her own and a very unfamiliar and ornately decorated room. Immediately trying to recall the events of the past night did only some good- she remembered arriving to Nick' sort of mansion that resided on the Mystic Falls city limits after yet another frustrating car ride, remembered Nick showing her around the place and telling her the family history of his that she had never been told. After that it got fuzzy, the last thing she remembered was Rebekah walking into the room. 

She pulled herself out of the silk covers and stepped onto the wooden floor beneath the bed, searching the room for her phone and shoes. When she couldn't find them she cursed under her breath, looking into the large ornamented vanity table mirror for a second to catch her reflection. Her mascara was smudged and her curls were undone and messy, only irritating her further. She was about to walk out the door when it opened and she jumped back with a huff. Rebekah stood on the other side, an eyebrow condescendingly raised as she looked over Caroline before she said, “Good. You're awake.”

“What happened last night-,” Caroline demanded viciously, earning a wicked smile in return.

“I snapped your neck,” the girl answered blithely, “and I don't know when Niklaus is going to be back so I would prefer if you shut up and follow me. I only bought us a small amount of time.”

“ _ Follow you _ ?” she snapped back, “are you serious? You  _ hate _ me-,”

Rebekah somehow managed to look bored, irritated, and threatening all at the same time making Caroline briefly think that somewhere Katherine had to be incredibly jealous. “Hated. You were common and stupid and only wanted my brother for his money. Not that I like you much better now, mind you, but unfortunately time has given us a mutual goal.”

Caroline couldn't help but wonder what on earth that could possibly be, despite wanting to walk out of the house as soon as possible now that Nick was gone. Unfortunately for Rebekah the last won out and she quickly went to leave, reminding herself that she could easily buy a replacement phone and shoes. Within moments the Original blonde was blocking her path looking quite fierce as she hissed, “I don't think you understand how much you need my help, so let me enlighten you. My brother let you remember that you knew him and that he turned you but do not be so naïve as to think he let you remember everything. If you think you have enough reason to hate him now, you are mistaken.”

“Why should I trust you?” Caroline questioned, the hairs on her body rising as if her body already knew Rebekah was telling the truth, “you're close to him, why would you tell me something he doesn't want me to know?”

“Niklaus has given my brother Elijah and I more than enough reason to betray him, just as he does every living soul. He no longer values the family that loves him and instead grows only more power hungry by the day. Elijah and I must stop him,” she confided, “for whatever reason he has a penchant for you. I imagine, after overhearing your conversation last night, that your rejection will only increase his interest. He tends to obsess over the things he wants and that makes you an asset.”

“I'm not going to let him kill the doppelganger but I'm not about to kill him either. I actually value life.”

Rebekah raised her eyebrows, lightly asking, “Really? Even after he turned you? My, perhaps you have changed. Not a problem, we don't intend to kill him anyway.”

“You're not going to tell me what he did that was so horrible for me?” Caroline goaded the other girl, even though it was herself that was afraid.

“Fine. Just remember that Niklaus isn't the only one who can compel you,” she drawled, stepping closer and making her quickly move back. She moved past Caroline though, walking into the room and straight over to the closet. With quite a dramatic flair she slid the doors open and then turned around, but after that Caroline wasn't looking at her. She was staring into the closet, a numb gaze fixed on the intricate wedding dress hung up and fully facing her looking so beautiful despite the large blood stains. 

Her voice barely came out as a whisper as she asked, “What happened?” 

“My brother compelled you to remember only everything that  _ he _ had made you forget. I think part of him planned it that way, even though at the time it seemed that he was just making me clean up his own mess.” Rebekah sighed, a sort of heavy tone to her voice, “he's always been irrational ever since we were young, and he was no different with you. You amused him more than others had, for whatever reason, and so he played along with your wishes. He actually did propose after taking you on a trip to New York, and when you got back you started planning the wedding. 

“You got your dress even—,” Rebekah glanced at the closet. “I hated you so much for it even though I knew all the lies he was telling. Your mother and father came to visit, hopelessly pretending like they were a proper couple so that the scandal you left at home wasn't obvious. Your parents were instantly suspicious of Nick, and after only a week's visit they hated him. So ironic that he’d fall for the girl of a vampire hunting town. The last day you put on your wedding dress to show them and they insisted that you leave him. There was a huge fight where they disowned you. Nick and I arrived to see you sobbing and them still yelling at you. You were so hurt and distraught in a way that surprised him after so long, I think. He killed them on the spot—,”

Caroline's felt the anger that she had been trying to hold under the surface come up with a force as she interrupted, “You're lying. My parents died here of old age, I watched them.”

Rebekah shook her head, “He was too angry to deal with you. He left after yelling at me and so I fixed everything. I made you forget, made you believe they were alive and well, I even found a couple to play the role for you. As much as I hated you I couldn't stand your crying over your mother's body.”

“I don't believe you,” she argued, her voice tight as she said it and her whole body vibrated with anger and renewed grief, “He wouldn't— not even him—,”

The girl gave a hollow laugh as she stood, “He killed our own mother, I see no reason for him to have any aversion to killing yours.”

Tears had already flooded her eyes and she felt so abruptly torn apart that she could no longer master herself or her emotions. She moved toward Rebekah in seconds, planning to do any possible harm she could, but the Original was vastly faster than her and grabbed Caroline's arms before she could touch the girls neck. She held them there, looking down at Caroline as if she were the most pitiable creature to ever walk the earth. There was something else in her expression though and that was what almost undid her completely. Beneath the condescending pity, Caroline could sense Rebekah's empathy lurking. 

“What about Josette? Elizabeth?” Caroline asked, sobbing in fear despite herself. “Did he--,”

“No. He was busy in New Orleans at the time. Or traveling the world, I can never remember which. He had me desiccated at the time.” Rebekah said, almost soft at first but then definitively bitter. “From what Elijah tells me you took care of the murderers yourself.”

Caroline almost broke free now, almost said something, almost broke into uncontrollable sobs- but then Rebekah gasped, compelled her, “Stop crying. You will pretend we were only speaking of your girls and nothing else.” before letting her go with a violent speed, her face showing shock as she turned around. Caroline followed her quick gaze to see Nick— no, Klaus— standing just outside of the doorway. 

Seeing him brought up so much anger that she couldn't think of anything but driving a stake through his heart, no matter if it would work or not. Somehow she managed to control herself and snap. “Where is my phone?”

Klaus eyed Rebekah and the open closet, but sighed after a moment, seeming to think the situation hadn't revealed his worst offense to her. He pulled out the phone from his pocket and handed it over. “Sorry, love, didn't want Rebekah here going through it. She's quite nosy.”

“Oi,” Rebekah murmured irritably.

“Whatever,” Caroline hissed, as she grabbed her cell from his hands, “you showed me the house, told me your history, I saw your sister and she snapped my neck. Can I go now, or are you holding me hostage?”

Klaus laughed, seeming to think her vitriol had been caused by Rebekah, “No, you are free to leave. Do you want your shoes, or—,”

But Caroline had already sped away, quickly going to the Salvatore boarding house.

* * *

“Stefan I’m so sorry,” she said the second he answered the door, desperate for him to believe her. “I swear-- Klaus took me--,”

“What?” Stefan asked, shock on his face. She really had to stop doing this to him, the boy was going to have a premature heart attack.

“Yeah,” she said softly, “he was playing as Nick, Damon’s friend. He made me remember things that he had compelled me to forget, because  _ apparently _ I knew him before—,” her voice was becoming strong and emotional—, “ _ apparently _ , I knew him in the 20's and I was engaged to him and then he ended up turning me. I don't even care about that now but Stefan, he killed my parents. He killed them. I thought they died peacefully of old age—,”

She was sobbing now, all the strength of anger gone, and he quickly wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. She cried into his shoulder, wishing more than anything that he could be hers and that she wasn't this stupid horrible monster that would live forever and watch him die as well. “It's all my fault. I trusted him even though I knew something was wrong. It's  _ my fault _ they're dead.”

“No,” he said, his voice dripping with a sad reassurance as her sobs only became stronger, “no, it's not. It's his, Caroline. Remember what you said? It's easier to blame yourself than to realize life is cruel? It's not your fault, you couldn't have done anything.”

He pulled away slightly from her then, wiping the warm tears from her face and staring into her eyes. She felt herself wanting him only more and more and it wasn't nice and cute anymore, it was  _ painful _ . “I'm sorry, I shouldn't be crying to you. I ruined everything. Damon got turned because—,”

Stefan shook his head, trying to hold her there, but she was much stronger than him. She pulled away, and he called, “Caroline, stop. Come here.”

She didn't turn around, feeling tears fall down once more, but did stop. “No, Stefan, I think I just need to go home. I'm a big girl. I can handle myself.”

Maybe it was because she was so upset, maybe it was because she was trying to force herself to not beg him to forgive her for everything, but when she left, she didn't hear him follow until he was right behind her. She whipped around, but he was kissing her before she had even begun, only stopping once to say, “I'm sure you can. But you don't have to pretend with me.”

She kissed him then in return, her lips touching his with an underlying force that scared her. He wrapped his hands around her waist, she let her arms fold around his neck, and for a moment they were just two people, kissing. Two people trying to comfort each other.

But it was her last two thoughts that made her gasp softly, made her look into his eyes with a frightened realization. He looked down at her with such an intense look, hiding a piece of her hair back behind her ear. _ I'm falling in love with him, _ she thought,  _ I'm falling in love with him and I don't want to stop. _


End file.
